Endless Fire
by alainamay
Summary: This story is told by Hailey Mellark, The daughter of Katniss and Peeta Mellark. they thought everything was over, but what happens when history starts to repeat it self.
1. Chapter 1

The cool autumn breeze brushes over my cheeks as I wonder around the endless forest outside District 12. I was looking for my mother, who was probably up high in a tree about to strike a rabbit in the heart with her bow.

My mom was Katniss Everdeen, The girl on fire and the Victor of the 74th Hunger Games. But of course now she is Katniss Mellark, My dad being Peeta Mellark, also the victor of the 74th Hunger Games.

My mom was fantastic with the Bow she almost never misses. My specialty wasn't with the bow but the Knife; I was swift, quick, and accurate. I'm about to go to my mom and I's meeting place, right before the fence into District 12, when I spot a rabbit. I stop short and position my arm with my knife in my hand. I usually don't hunt with my knife, but I couldn't pull out my bow without startling the rabbit. I strategically placed my knife with my aim and chucked it and just to what I expected it landed in the Rabbit's heart. Causing it to stop short and lay on the forest floor dead. I smirked to myself at my skill.

"Good Throw" I turn my head quick towards the sound I saw a boy, about 16, my age. He was tall and his gray eyes were intensely staring at my face. He had dark brown hair and his was a perfect tan. He came closer, cracking branches beneath his feet.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to sneak up on you" He started at me like he was waiting for me to say something. "But seriously," he continued, "that was a great throw" he smiled revealing his white teeth that seemed to glow. I still stand there dumfounded looking at the boy's beauty. He look down towards the ground, realizing I wasn't going to answer back. And that snapped me back to reality.

"Uh…Thanks" I say. The boy smiled again making my legs go week. The sun behind me made his eyes glisten and made them look a shiny silver instead of gray. He looked up at the glowing sun. his face lit up, as though realizing something.

"I better be getting out of here, my dad is probably wondering where I went" he smiles as a goodbye and it takes me a second to say goodbye by then he is already walking away from me.

"See you" my voice cracks, realizing after I said it I had no idea if I was going to see him again.

From my left I hear a branch crack. My head snaps up wondering if it would be another extremely attractive boy. All I see is my mother's brown hair and gray eyes.

"Don't sneak up on me like that" I yell in fear. My mom laughs,

"I was only there for a second" I turn my head towards the path the boy was walking down and saw him walking still. My mom saw and asked,

"Who's that?" I stand quiet for a moment remembering what happened. And staring at the place where the boy once stood.

"I'm not sure." I tell mom about the rabbit I killed, just remembering the dead rabbit just now. And I tell her how he complimented it.

My mom now looked down the path, seeing the boy. He looked back sensing he had eyes on him. He saw me and waved. I waved back and glanced at my mom. She had a weird face. Like she was trying to figure something out. She shook her head. And looked at the dead rabbit. "We'll let bring that rabbit outta here." She paused.

"Hailey, you coming?" I nodded my head but my brain was still thinking of the grey eyed boy who thought I was good at throwing.


	2. Chapter 2

When I was walking home I scuffed fallen pieces of leaves under my shoes. Mom said she wanted to stop at the hob, for the rabbit I killed. She told me to go ahead home. The house was empty, so I went to the bakery.

When I walked into the bakery, I heard Will, my younger brother, humming a tune. Me and Will look the exact opposite from each other. Whereas I have Mom's brown hair and dad's blue vibrant eyes, Will has Dads blond hair and moms grey seam eyes. We both share traits from both, I've had numerous people tell me I have my dad's painting skill. And everyone tells Will he has a beautiful singing voice, just like my mom.

Will comes up from under the counter, probably expecting a customer. "Oh hey Hailey" he picks up his cloth off of his apron, wiping the counter free of flour. Will and dad like to work at the bakery. It's bonding time for them like hunting is for me and mom.

"Hey, where's dad?" I ask he pointed to behind the counter towards the back of the bakery, where the ovens are. I climb over the counter and swing my legs over.

I pass the freezer and the oven room and walk until I get to the cake room. I turned to the right, down the hall and through a door way, when I see dad sitting in a stool bent over cookies, icing them. He looks up when he notices me.

"Back from hunting? Where's your mother?" I pull up a stool next to him looking at the beautiful work he was creating. "At the hob," I say taking one of the cookies. "Primroses eh?" I look at the flowers on the cookies resembling the beautiful flowers perfectly. Dad smirked and snatches back my cookie before I got a chance to bite it. I take a blank cookie instead and started icing it, matching it exactly identical to my dad's.

"So, what did you guys get?" he asks. "Well I got a rabbit. With my knife." I said sounding proud, which I was but that just reminded me of the boy I saw his grey mysterious eyes, staring at me. "Good throw" his voice echoes through my head. "Wow, your finally getting good at hunting?" he joked. I slapped him on the shoulder which caused him to laugh. "Hey, just kidding!" Dads piling the primrose cookies on a tray but looks up and glances out of the window. His face changes and suddenly he is standing up whipping off his apron. I look up at him and it's as though he just remembered I was there.

"Hold on Hailey, I got to do something. Finish those cookies for me?" I nod my head but I'm curious to know what made him go all crazy. I stand up moving closer to the window and across from the bakery I see a house. A house that was usually vacant. But now outside stood a tall strong looking man, He had dark brown and so did the boy next to him. I am shocked to see the boy, because that's the boy I saw in the woods. I can only guess that the taller, older, looking man was the mystery boy's father, since they looked so alike. Now out of the window I see Dad charging his way towards the man and the boy. I had no idea what he was doing but something tells me he wasn't too happy.

I was right but I didn't get why my dad looked so furious, the man I never seen before didn't look too happy either and pushed his son in his house. The man's grey eyes were staring down my dad intensely. I'm suddenly more curious then I was before, leading myself through the hallways to the front room, forgetting about the cookies.

Will is still there, mopping the floor. He sees me. He's looking at me over his blond curls covering his eyes. "Where did dad storm out all angrily to?" he nodded his toward the door. I look out the door to see my dad and the tall man arguing. Dad's stance looked tense.

Will is about to go outside to get bags of flour to bring inside, but I volunteer, with more on my mind then doing a good favor for my brother. As soon as I open the bakery door I hear my dad's voice.

"You said you wouldn't come back, It was hard on her!" who was her? I asked myself. I walk to the side of the bakery, careful not to make myself noticeable. But I still have a good view of my father and the man. I walk in the fence seeing the towering bags of flour.

"Don't worry I'm not here to steal her from you Peeta." The man's deep voice said. "I have a family now." He continued.

"That didn't stop you the last time you were here!" my dad, looking about ready to explode. I've never seen him this mad.

"Well she deserved better than this!" The man yelled, holding his hands up. Remembering what I came out here to do, I crept closer to a bag of flour. I lifted it, putting it over my shoulder.

"Better than what Gale? What do you know about Katniss anymore!" They were just about screaming now; just about all of district 12 could hear them. But I figured out one thing, they were talking about my mom, and the man's name was Gale. I figured that was enough eavesdropping for now. I carried the flour bag over my shoulder out of the gate and locked it behind me.

"Better than her husband trying to kill her!" Once the man yelled those words it felt like the whole district sound silent. You could hear a pin drop at this moment. Out of shock I dropped the bag of flour.

"I haven't done that in a while Gale." My dad says shamefully. Not denying a word. I didn't like the sound of what that man was saying. Dropping the bag of flour caused the man, Gale my dad had called him, to look at me. His Gray eyes widened as he spotted me. My dad wondering what he was looking at so intensely he turned his head towards me. I felt tears in the rim of my eyes. Was my dad hiding a secret? Seeing me upset was no surprise to my dad. He knew I heard what Gale said. I was embarrassed. I'm not sure why. But Gale and my dad were staring at me, and I felt overwhelmed. So I ran, past the bakery.

"Hailey!" I heard my dad behind me. I ran until I got to the Hub. Thinking of my mom, thinking of what Gale said. I was behind a tree when dad caught up. Maybe I was overreacting, or maybe I heard Gale wrong. Dad stopped in front of the Hub catching his breath. My mom walked out of the Hob waving goodbye to somebody.

"Peeta?" mom walked over to dad, holding his shoulder. "Are you okay?" Dad coughed and waited a moment until saying anything.

"Did you see Hailey?" As soon as dad said this, mom's face filled with panic. Mom has always been protective of Will and me, even now that we're older and can take care of ourselves. I never knew why though.

"What?" mom yelled in fear. Dad finally catching his breath calmed down mom, telling her nothing was wrong. "Katniss, Gale's back." dad was staring into the eyes of mom, her eyes widened. Mom muttered something I couldn't hear and said "What does that have to do with Hailey? Where is she?" she calmed down a bit enough to not sound crazy.

"I'm sure she is fine." The truth was I wasn't fin. Not even close. I wanted to know who this Gale guy was and what he meant by saying my dad was trying to kill my mom. Mom was still staring at him, begging for answers

Dad told her how I heard something that Gale said. Mom leaned closer waiting for dad to continue. When he didn't mom demanded, "Peeta, what did she hear?" I could tell mom was getting impatience. Dad looked down at the ground frowning, probably remembering what happened.

"Gale mentioned something about how you deserved something better than a husband who was trying to kill you." Mom's eyes widened even more. And right now I was more confused than I was before. Did Mom know dad was trying to kill her?

"He was talking about when you were hijacked." My mom's voice cracking as she said this. Dad nodded. "I'm sure Hailey is confused and went somewhere to think" dad tried to comforted mom. Dad got something right. I was confused. What is being hijacked mean? And why was dad hijacked.

"I want to see Gale." Mom said softly so only dad, and me of course, could hear. Dad looked shocked, but nodded understandingly and they walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

I still had no idea what being hijacked meant. And I had no idea what was going on. But I obviously wanted to know. I followed mom and dad quietly behind them, keeping my distance so they wouldn't see me. When they got to Gale's house, I quickly climbed up a tree close enough to see and hear everything, but still far enough to not be seen.

Gale is sitting on a bench outside of his house with his head down. But when he notices he isn't alone his head shoots up. Dad looks at Gale, as if giving him a warning. He turns kissing mom on the forehead and he walks towards the bakery, giving mom and Gale their privacy.

Mom looks nervous, like she doesn't know what to say or do. "Hey Catnip." Gale says. Mom gives him a smile, "Hey Gale." She says. I could tell she was trying to stay strong, but I didn't understand why it was so hard for mom to talk to him. Mom took her away her smile getting serious.

"Why are you here Gale?" My mom said fiercely. Gale's smile faded too.

"I wanted to see you Katniss, I miss you." Mom's eyes darted in every direction, except in Gale's. "I don't know what Peeta Told you, but I'm not here to steal you away from him." He puts his hands on his hips. "I have a family, a wife and a son. I wanted to go home, 2 isn't my home, 12 is." I believed him saying he wasn't here to take mom from dad. But the way he spoke his words it was hard to think mom would be able to resist.

"A son?" moms voice cracks. I didn't understand why this bothered her, she had 2 kids. Gale locks his eyes on mom.

"You have a daughter." Gale says back. Mom nods realizing she should feel just as bad. Mom looks Gale in the eye for the first time.

"Gale listen, I have no problem with you living back here, but don't think I'm in this relationship with Peeta because it's forced. I love him, Gale. "She pauses, swallowing. "And Peeta loves me too." Gale's face lifts up, about to say something, probably countering what mom just said.

"No, Gale he does, he loved me even when he did suffer through the hijacking, but he stopped. He stopped the day we figured out I was pregnant with our daughter. "Now I was curious more than ever to know what dad stopped. Gale nods. "Goodbye Gale, I'll see you around." Gale lifts his hand and gives a pathetic wave goodbye.

Knowing I had to go home was uninviting. Mom and dad probably wouldn't tell me the truth about this anyway. So I decided something that dad might kill me for. Keeping my eyes on Gale, he sat on a bench looking at the ground. Without double thinking I jumped from the tree I was in. Gale immediately shot his head up starting at me and back up at the tree I was sitting in unnoticeable for 15 minutes. I walked closer to Gale's house, Gale looking at me every step I go. When I get to the gate surrounding his house, I look back at the windows of the bakery making sure no one was looking.

"As stealthy as her mother. " Gale says. I couldn't help but crack a smile. Maybe he isn't that bad. Realizing he wasn't the good guy, I got serious.

"And just as demanding." I started. "I'll tell you anything. Just can you tell me what you meant by saying 'A husband who is trying to kill her'" Gale just looked at me. It pained him to look at me, I could tell. Whenever he looked at me for a long time, his eyebrows bent downward, seeing my eyes. Peeta Mellarks eyes, but when he glanced at me quickly a part of him lit up, like he saw a sixteen year old Katniss.

"Alright, but you should know, I'm not the bad guy. " I had a hard time believing this, but he was the only chance at information I had. "Can we go in the back?" I asked looking back at the bakery, once more, only seeing Will, who was too busy to look at the window. Gale understands and leads me through the gate in the back there were benches and sitting on one of them was the boy.

His brown hair was shining in the sun, like it was in the forest. When he realized he wasn't alone he shot his head up, reminding me of Gale in every feature. He locked his eyes on me, probably questioning why I was there. Gale seeing him staring at asked his son, "Nick, would you mind going inside I got to talk to…" Gale didn't even know my name.

"Hailey." I finished. His name was Nick. I knew his name, and he knew mine. There was no more mysterious boy from the forest. He was Nick, Gale's son. Who moved here from District 2. Nick nodded going back into the house. Part of me was upset I didn't get to hear his voice. But I put that thought deep somewhere in my mind, there was no time to think of Nick's dreamy voice.

"So it's just you and your mother and father?" he asked sitting down, avoiding my face.

"And my brother." I said his eyes widened. "Sorry." I say quickly, I'm not sure why though. "He was the one in the window of the bakery?" I nodded. "I would have figured out sooner or later." We stand there awkwardly. "What about your mothers, mom?" I stand there thinking of Grandma. We rarely get a visit from her. She's been living in District 4 ever since I've been born, even before that. She comes down for birthdays, and holidays. But that's it really. "She's still in district 4" I answer.

"Gale, do you mind if I call you that?" I asked. "Go ahead." He answers quickly. "Can you just tell me what you meant?" Gale finally looks at me.

"You look exactly like your mother, Hailey." He is avoiding the topic, I wanted to talk about. "Yea except for the eyes, they're Mellark eyes." I say hostilely I immediately regret lashing out, seeing the hurt on his face, "Yup. Just like your mother." I roll my eyes in anger. "Gale you said you would tell me if I told you anything you would want to know."

"There's nothing I need to know so desperately." I get up angrily. Yea the good guy. I just risked being seen going into the back of Gale's house, just to hear things I know, and to share awkward glances. I walk towards the fence closet to the opposite of the front of the house, planning to jump over it.

"Hailey." I look back at Gale, making sure I made Dad's eyes as noticeable as can be, "He cares about you, your dad. The way he looked at me when I chased you off with what I said, or the way he ran after you, it reminded me of the way he protected your mother, they have a good reason for not telling you about this." He stands up from the bench, putting his arm on my shoulder. "Go home Hailey." He looks me straight in the eyes, not showing any weakness to them. "They're worried." He finishes taking his hands from my shoulders. I say nothing and jump over the fence.


	4. Chapter 4

A/n so I already have chapters 4-12 done, and I'm going to try to put one chapter up a day, because I still want to actually write the story, and it takes time to proofread it and stuff so yea, I hope you like it! Reviews are greatly appreciated.

Gale was right, Mom and Dad probably were worried, especially mom. I'm walking slowly to Victor's Village, dragging my feet behind me. The sky was just getting a little shade of darkness, my favorite time of day. I'm turning a corner when I hear a vomiting noise.

"Hello?" I say. I hear more gross noises followed with coughs. I turn my body to a trash can. The sound seems to be coming from behind it. I look over the trash can and sitting on the ground is Haymitch Abernathy.

"Oh thank goodness, Katniss, could you help me up?" I crouch down to Haymitch, "No Haymitch, its Hailey, not Katniss." He squints his eyes realizing it was the blue eyed girl not the gray eyed one. I pull Haymitch up, he groans in pain. It's no wonder he is in pain. Haymitch was old; he was in no state to be getting himself drunk like this.

"Haymitch your way too old to be doing this" I say to him once he is up. He looks at me disgusted. "Your way too young to be telling me what I should do" I sighed. He had always been this way, even when he was the mentor or mom and dad in the Hunger Games. I stop short. It all comes rushing through my mind. Haymitch, Hunger Games, Mom, Dad, Hijacked. My brain was filled with an idea.

"What's the holdup Hailey?" Haymitch Grumbles. He was drunk which would make this easier.

"Say, Haymitch, in school, I'm doing a project on Hijacking, you wouldn't happen to know anything about it would you?" I make up this lie on the spot. His face looks surprised, at first I thought Haymitch was on to me and he wasn't drunk enough. But as always he is unpredictable.

"As a matter of fact I do." He said "Hell your father was hijacked!" I act surprised like I didn't know this. "Was he really?" I say "What is hijacking exactly?"

"It's when a person takes away thought and memories of a person, and replaces it with what they want that person to do." Though what Haymitch said barely made sense I understood what he was saying, or trying to say. So someone took dad and replaced his thoughts, actions, and memories, with their own? Well it was close enough for me. "What things could they do, Haymitch?" he coughed or gagged, I couldn't tell.

"Well, take you dad for example, he always loved your mom, but before he died, President Snow hijacked your dad, making him programed almost to kill your mom, over the years, they claim it went away." That was mom was saying, he stopped, stopped trying to kill her.

"Thanks Haymitch." I kiss his cheek, regretting it immediately because it tastes like alcohol was poured on his face, but Haymitch had always been an uncle to me, a drunken uncle.

We're walking to victor's village, taking our time since Haymitch is drunk as can be. When we finally make it to my house, it's fully dark, and our door is unlocked, which it's never is. Mom gets paranoid like that. When I enter the house I see exactly what I expect. Mom and dad are sitting on the love seat that is faced towards the door.

Mom seems relieved when she sees me, and then angered when she sees Haymitch. She runs to me hugging me, and I hug back. She looks at me before tending to Haymitch. Behind mom is dad, he is standing looking at me over his blond hair. I can't tell if he is angry or relieved, but I don't care. I fly into his arms. He smells like flour and dough and his arms are warm, and I never want to leave.

Suddenly a thought of someone taking away my dad and taking away his memories overcame my mind. Maybe instead of mom, he would be programed to kill me. Tears start falling and I grip dad closer. I noticed mom left the room with Haymitch, leaving me and dad alone.

"Dad, don't ever let someone hijack you again." I say I sound like I'm five years old, we both know if the capitol decides you should be hijacked, there's no getting out of it. I don't care though because in my dad's arms I could be ding but I would feel fine. He pats my back and then puts his arm on my shoulder and looks directly in my eyes, like Gale did earlier.

"Hailey, do you understand what happened when I was hijacked." He looks at me, waiting for an answer. I feel bad making him remember the feeling of wanting to kill the girl he loved. I nod and tell him I made a drunken Haymitch tell me, and I smirk but the tears come back quickly.

He hugs me again, making everything seem alright. Me and him sit on the couch a while, in silence, until mom comes out of the bathroom with Haymitch. Mom seems angry and frustrated and Haymitch is half asleep.

"I'm tired." Mom says simply, and dad kisses me on the forehead and I feel better. I watch them walk up the stairs, hand in hand. Mom and dad loved each other, no matter what happened between them. I wish I would grow up and have a husband that loved me just as much as dad loved mom, if it was even possible.

I decide to stay in the living room, downstairs, with Haymitch on the couch next to me, asleep. I turn on the TV. They don't play much on TV these days, the television comes from the Capitol and ever since the rebellion they have been on the down low. When I turn the channel, on the screen I see numerous people being announced. Curious to see what it was for I left it on,

"District 12, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark." The announcer says. My whole body freezes, and I feel my face flush. The camera shows a girl that looks exactly like me. But when the camera zooms in on her blowing a kiss, I notice her eyes are a light gray. Then the boy besides her is a strong looking blonde haired boy. It takes some time for this to go through my mind, but when it does I look over at Haymitch to see him snoring. Good. I don't want anyone to know I'm about to relive the 74th Hunger Games.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/n I wanted to put all the games in one chapter, but I felt like it would be way too much information, so I broke it up in two. I'll try and put the next chapter up tomorrow, but I have plans, so I might have to do it the next day. This chapter is like really boring, cause it's a bunch of stuff you know, but I had to put it in… but I hope you like the story so far!:)**

I feel like I'm doing something evil, like unthinkably bad. I knew if my mother knew I was watching this she would personally shoot an arrow through my head.

When they call mom and dad's names they come riding in on a chariot. Mom and Dad where wearing matching black suits. I didn't get it at first, though they both look stunning. They both looked nervous and holding on to each other strongly.

Mom gives a kiss to the crowd, and all of a sudden their black suits rise up in flames. I get their outfits now, they both looked so perfect. Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire. Mom looked flawless; a smile on her face so big, I couldn't believe it was her. Several times dad would look over his shoulder at her with love in his eyes. I wonder if they were in love yet. It was almost embarrassing how little I knew about this, but that's ok, because I'm about to find out. Every single detail,

After the chariot rides were the most famous part of the Hunger Games, the interviews, where everything you say counts. I watch all the other tributes get interviewed and the first one called from district 12 is Katniss Everdeen. She is wearing a beautiful dress, and she is acting like someone I have never met before, but she wins over the crowd with her humor and twirling in her dress. It shocked me to see my mom like this, exactly my age. Looking exactly like me, but acting nothing like herself. I wonder if mom was like this before the games, and if the games had done this to her, or if it was just one big show for the audience?

Caesar Flickerman, the announcer, can really make the tributes look good, no matter whom it is. He asked mom about volunteering for her sister, Prim. I've heard about Prim, my aunt. She died before I was born, but mom was constantly making sure I knew who she was, and what she meant to mom. My middle name was Primrose, Mom couldn't handle to have my first name be Prim, just like Will, and his middle name was Finnick, another Friend of mom and dads who died.

I can tell her how it upsets her to talk about Prim. "Her name is Prim, she's just twelve. And I love her more than anything." The city circle was silent. I can believe her, that she loves Prim more than anything. "What did she say to you? After the reaping?" Caesar asks. Mom swallows "She asked me to try really hard to win" The audience is frozen, clinging on to every word she says. I feel tears forming in my eyes. I wipe them away quick, I'm getting too into this I say inside my head, but then I realize this isn't some scripted show, this is real.

Then the announcer is called Peeta Mellark. Looks Buff and handsome in the suit he is wearing. Caesar and he start a small talk conversation, like no one is watching. Why is dad so easily being himself when mom fakes everything? Though he mom fakes everything, they're both equally charming.

Caesar asks dad if he had a girlfriend back home, dad hesitates and then gives an unconvincing head shake. "Handsome lad like you, there must be some special girl. Come on, what's her name?" says Caesar. Dad sighs, I am so intensely watching the screen that I am going to break it with the power in my eyes.

"Well there is this one girl, I've had a crush on ever since I can remember but I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping." The crowd 'aw's' understanding how that feels. "She has another fellow?" Caesars asked. Dad shrugs, saying that a lot of boys liked her. I wish he would just tell the audience. I am dying to know, and I'm sitting on the edge of my seat.

"So here's what you do, you win, you go home, she can't turn you down then, eh?" no matter how hopeful that sounded, it didn't satisfy dad. He tells Caesar it wouldn't work in his case. What case! I want to scream. "Why ever not?" he asked interested. Dad blushes, red as a tomato. He begins to stammer out.

"Because…because…She came here with me. " I gasp, so loud I'm afraid I've woken Haymitch and ruined everything. But I'm happy to see Haymitch is still a sleep on the couch next to me, snoring quietly. I sigh, relieved. Why am I so shocked, I knew the way dad looked at her in the chariot rides, he was in love with her, I just didn't expect dad to say it so blatantly. The camera immediately flashes to mom's face. Her mouth half open in shock.

For once I see a part of mom in the city Circle, a real part. The same look she had shown to Gale earlier, she is blushing harder than dad, and it's unmistakable. Dad is saying how she didn't know anything about his feelings until now, but I was too busy watching the camera pan on Katniss Everdeen's face in shock

After the interviews it shows all the tributes lined up in a semi-circle in an arena, waiting for the announcer to yell "Ladies and Gentlemen, let the Seventy fourth Hunger Games begin!" When they are waiting, the camera flashes to mom, who has her eyes on something in the cornucopia, it shows the big horn, she has her eyes on a bow. Of course she would need a bow. It goes back to mom, but quickly goes to dad since she is looking at him as If reading mom's mind, he shakes his head, telling her that she won't make it if she runs to the bow

When the announcer yells that the games had begun I clutch a pillow. I'm nervous even though I know they make it out alive.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/n sorry I didn't get a chance to put this ups yesterday, and I am seriously procrastinating typing this right now. But this is another boring chapter (well I find it boring xD) only because it's a bunch of stuff that we already know and such, but this is the last chapter of her watching the hunger games. This chapter came out waaaay longer than I wanted it to…**

Mom runs towards a bright orange backpack. A boy reaches the pack at the same time and they fight. Though I know mom will live, I'm nervous. I see the boy spit blood on her face. That's just gross I think. Mom is grossed out too and she flies backwards to the ground. I expect the boy to grab the orange backpack and make a run for it, but instead he slides to the grass, he's got a knife in his back. I cringe at the sight of the boy's bloody back, and his dead body lying on the grass. I see the girl that threw the knife, I think she is from District 2 but I'm not quite sure. The girl charges towards Mom, her next target. Mom is still on the ground, and once mom realizes that she is in danger she quickly jumps up and grabs the backpack and disappears into the trees. It hit me a few moments later that she was without a bow.

The camera immediately flashes to a group of careers ganging up on other tributes, that's what the careers are known for, tormenting kids that don't have any chance to survive. I can't help but think of where my dad is. Was he hurt? The camera flashes to him moments later. Dad is fighting with some boy; he hits the boy hard with his fist, knocking the boy out. I never knew dad had the ability to fight with so much power, I knew my dad was strong, but I never pictured him punching people in the face. Everyone who wasn't a career was dead or fled from the cornucopia, except dad.

One of the careers, the leader it seemed like, noticed dad punching the boy. I remember this career. His name is Cato, from district 2. I remember him because he was the biggest, and the scariest looking.

"Good punch Lover Boy." Cato called towards dad. Dad looked up in fear at Cato who was coming closer to him. Cato raised his arm in which he had a knife. I cupped my hand over my mouth and squinted my eyes, but when Cato threw his arm It pierced the boy dad knocked out in the heart. A cannon fires noting he died.

"Clove." Cato said to the girl from his district, who was standing with the other careers. "I think Lover boy would be a great edition to the careers" Clove nods her head and so do the other careers. Dad looks shocked, but when Cato offers his hand to him to help him up, dad doesn't hesitate.

I don't know how I feel about dad joining the careers; I didn't understand why he would go against mom. The way the careers talked I could tell their very first target was mom. Was dad willing to attack mom to survive? They show a lot of videos of them walking in the pack together. So that was that, dad was with the careers. One by one they picked everyone off.

The cameras mostly follow mom, and if it is not mom, it's the careers. Mom spends most days up in a tree, since no one could climb as high as her. Mom doesn't know dad is with the careers until she hears them under the tree is she was staying in. Dad speaks up, revealing the truth to mom whose eyes widened. She looked like she was offended. I could only guess she felt betrayed by dad, I know I would.

Many deaths later, Mom is once again staying in a tree over the careers camp. Mom is somehow communicating with the small girl from district 11, Rue. Rue is in the tree next to mom and she points at to a nest-looking object hanging on the tree. A wasp nest? I think "Tracker Jackers" Mom whispers softly so the careers don't hear. Mom begins carefully cutting the nest with her knife, planning on attacking the careers, when the nest is free and falling from the tree there are tracker jackers everywhere. Some sting mom but they mostly assault the careers. The careers flee soon as someone yells "to the lake! To the lake!"

Mom looks down making sure they tracker jackers were cleared out. Then she runs down to the camp immediately spotting her bow on the dead body of a blond haired girl. She picks up the bow, and dizzy or not, you can see the power placed on her shoulders because of what she held in her hands. She hesitates for a moment looking around; maybe she was getting dizzy from the stings she got. Then the camera shows a frantic looking dad who is back at the camp looking at mom.

"What are you still doing here? Are you mad! Dad is poking mom with his spear. "Get up! Get up!" The intensity in his eyes burning, mom is looking at dad with panic in her eyes. She looks as though she is trying to figure out if this is a dream or not. "Run!" he screams "Run!" Mom finally gets up and sprints away, bow in her hand. I smile to myself since I know dad is saying this to protect mom. But my smile comes to a short stop when I notice a figure behind him creeping closer. I gasp quietly, wishing I jump in the TV and warn dad.

"I knew you would do this Lover boy." Cato says harshly, he is covered in ugly stings, and I find him more scarier looking then he was before. "It's time we make an edit to the careers." He says as he pulls out his knife. Dad's face is filled with so much fear I'm scared for him. He tries to push Cato away with his strength but he is no match to Cato. Instead of hitting him where he could die Cato slices dad in the upper leg. I cringe, the camera shows up close the blood oozing from the leg. Cato is disappointed that dad succeeded in making Cato miss. There is screaming coming towards the lake and without hesitating, Cato runs towards the lake, leaving dad there to bleed to death. He is laying there so helpless, I start to cry. He is moaning out in pain, he doesn't even care if someone finds him, because he probably rather be dead then how he is now.

Mom decides to team up with the tiny girl Rue. They're a great team. Mom and Rue have an instant connection and they fully trust each other immediately. Then I start thinking about what will happen to poor little Rue, since obviously they both can make it out alive. I expect Cato to come up behind every bush and slice mom's leg like he did to dads, and then he would murder Rue.

Dad is hurt badly and cannot move, he lays in mud, colored up in greatly colored camouflage. He lays there for days, and they don't show him much.

Then comes when Rue has to die, one of the careers sends a spear through her stomach, Rue is crying in pain and in fear. Mom finds her and kills the boy who threw the spear at Rue, without hesitating. Rue asks mom to stay, and she sings to her, a beautiful song I've heard so many times in my life. It's Will's favorite song, the song mom used to sing to us to get us to bed. Now that I know the meaning of her singing it to us, It suddenly is more meaningfully.

The hurt in mom's eyes is unbearable to take, her tears are flowing and I want to run to her and give her a hug. When she is finishes singing, mom covers Rue in flowers because in the middle of the song the cannon fires.

Days pass and the games don't get interesting until the announcer tells the tributes some news. The camera is on mom, and she looks surprised. The announcer says that a new rule change is in the game. If two people from the same district survive, they will both be crowned victors. At that moment I am so happy, and I know how it ends, or I knew how it should end. Mom sitting in the tree in shock, without thinking yells out "Peeta!" she realizes it was stupid and claps her hands over her mouth, cursing herself for being so stupid.

Mom of course begins searching for dad, nothing exciting until mom hears below her feet. "You here to finish me off sweetheart?" Mom finds Him on the floor, still in the mud he caked himself in. She cleans out his leg and they are determined to make it out of the games both alive.

A lot of romantic things happen. Mom kisses dad, totally catching him off guard, seeing dad's face was priceless. I get to hear the story of how my dad and mom met, and it was a true love story. They spend a lot of time in the cave kissing and flirting. Normally watching your parents make out isn't the most pleasant thing, but I felt like I was watching a movie, with fictional characters I never met.

Cato dies last, it was brutal long, and torturing to watch, but I felt so relieved afterwards, it was worth it. I'm waiting for mom and dad to be crowned victors but all they get is a message from the announcer. Mom and dad are sitting together in the cave when the announcer says that he is taking back the rule change, and there can only be one victor. I am almost crying and I am trying to hold in my sobs but they sneak out anyway.

Mom and dad are shocked and looking at each other. They're offering each other's life for each other when a deep voice behind me interrupts my intense staring.

"Good show you're watching" I shriek lowly realizing Haymitch was awake. He is looking at me with his eyebrows raised. I avoid his eyes. I feel guilty that I watched this. "Damn it" I say hugging my legs. I'm missing what is going on in the world of the hunger games. Haymitch is of course sober, how ironic.

He sighs, "I won't tell if you turn it off right now" I look at him. "I saw most of it already." I'm remembering all the deaths the blood and the tears. He sees my worried face.

"Are you ok?" I lie shaking my head yes. Haymitch outs his arms out towards me, a thing he rarely does. I hug him and this time he doesn't smell like liquor and it's nice.

"Thanks Haymitch" he nods.

"I know how it feels, watching two people you care about to fight for their lives." Whoa Haymitch is in rare form, I got a hug and he talked about his feelings in one night. Maybe that's why I like Haymitch so much, because I don't like predictable people.

I turn the TV off, were sitting there in silence to let me think of dad getting cut by Cato, Rue speared in the stomach, and mom's face when the rule changed back

This was scary, but all so real.


	7. Chapter 7

Haymitch tells me to relax and not think about the games, which I think is ironic considering he became an alcoholic because of the games. But I don't say anything, because he knows how it feels, since he actually had to play the horrifying game, watching people around him die. Haymitch leaves, leaving me alone.

I look at the time and it is about 3 in the morning. I wish I would have turned off that TV as soon as I realized what it was. I was too tired to walk up the stairs and maybe I was afraid the ghost of Cato was up there waiting for me to slice my leg. I fall asleep quickly when I sit back down on the couch.

I had a nightmare but I don't remember it much. But I think I was mom, I was running yelling "Get away Cato!" but when I turned my head to see the boy running, it wasn't Cato, it was the familiar pair of gray eyes staring at me as he ran after me. It was Nick, Gale's son. I don't remember much after that, except Nick throwing a spear through Will. I must being screaming in my sleep because the next thing I see is mom at my side calling my name. My eyes shoot open and my first though is what if I yelled Cato's name out loud and mom heard.

But I don't think she does, because she is asking me why I'm screaming. She has a worrying face on and looks at me cautiously. She has protectiveness in her eyes, I can't help but realize it's the look she gave Rue.

It takes a while for me to calm down in my head for me to talk. "Mom I'm fine, I promise, just a nightmare, it happens sometimes, it was nothing." But I'm scared the nightmares will never stop, and I will be forever afraid of closing my eyes.

"Alright, I'm just making sure." Mom says stills looking at me cautiously. Normally to avoid more conversation I would turn on the television, but now I'm not too sure what would be on.

"Oh Hailey, we really need more meat, but I can't go hunting. I've got to talk to Haymitch about last night's mishap. Do you mind going by yourself today?"

Part of me wants to go into the forest, climb up a tree and clear my mind, but the other part of me thinks being up in a tree will just remind me of mom sitting in the arena worrying that herself, or people she cares about will die. But I can't say no anyway, what would I say?

"Sure, I'll go now." She thanks me and gives me a smile. I go up to my room, changing my clothes and grabbing my knife and bow. Leaving my room I see dad coming out of his room, seeing his face reminds me of the boy who laid in the muddy mess, helplessly hoping for mom to find him. He smiles at me and I smile back like nothing's wrong. We walk down the stairs together and I say goodbye.

Coming out of the door of our house, immediately the cool wind covers my face. I run down the steps to my house trying to warm up. Coming out of victor's village, I head towards the fence surrounding District 12. In order to get there I of course had to past the bakery and Gale's house. I walk fast since I am not in the mood to have an awkward chat with Gale. I'm almost passed Gale's house when I hear

"Hey, Hailey, wait up!" It's not Gale but Nick. When I turn my head and see his attractive face, I flinch, picturing him running towards me in my dream as Cato. When I stop to let him catch up, he smiles.

"Where you going?" he asks me when he catches up.

"Hunting" I answered simply keeping my eyes forward. Nick walks in front of me stopping me short, his gray eyes reminds me of Gale.

"Mind if I come?" I snort at his remark.

"Do you even know how to hunt?" He rolls his eyes. "My dad taught me when I was young, I could hunt with my eyes closed." At this point I really wish he would close his eyes, because his eyes were distracting, but I figure being with someone this distracting won't let me think of the games.

"Alright come." I start walking again and he follows. It turns out he brought his knife, which he was supposedly great at, I don't say out loud, but I'm pretty sure I am better than him with a knife.

Nick was great with knives, our skill was almost matched. He was good at hunting like he said and I did have a good time. He turned out to be quite a funny guy. I've never had this much hunting, and I even learned something about him

We were sitting in the tree in silence There was no rabbits in sight so I turned to him, "You know, I'm already sitting very close to you in a tree, but I barley know who you are." He laughs, revealing a dimple above the corner of his lips.

"My name is Nicholas Rory Hawthorne, I am sixteen, I was born and raised in District 2, and I am the son of Gale and Fawna Hawthorne. My dad always wanted to move back to district 12…" He pauses taking a breath, he then puts out his hand to me, "And you are?" I laugh and shake his hand.

"My name is Hailey Primrose Mellark, I'm sixteen, the daughter of Peeta and Katniss Mellark, I was born and raised in District 12 and I'm pretty sure our dads want to kill each other." We both laugh having a great time and I could care less that we're scaring away all the rabbits in the forest.

"Do you know enough about me Hailey?" he asks with one eyebrow raised. I smile, but I shake my head no. I feel like I need to be able to hear him say something he wouldn't tell anyone else. "Tell me a secret." I say. He sits in silence for a few seconds.

"When I first saw you in the forest for the first time, I knew who you were." He said sheepishly. I kind of feel disappointed, so I knew him as the mysterious boy from the forest, but he knew who I was? There was no mystery girl with the good throwing skill?

"Well I didn't know you name, but I knew you were Katniss Everdeen's daughter." He pauses for a moment and continues. "My dad, when I was around 13, I had feelings for a girl and I needed help. He sat me down, talking about this girl. At first I thought she was a fictional character, everything he described, long brown hair that ran down her shoulder in a braid." He glanced at my brown hair in the braid it was in. "Her stance was confident and she was great at everything she did." I look at Nick. "My dad said he was in love with her ever since they met in the forest, he never told her, and she ended up with some baker. So I guess the lesson I learned was to always tell a girl how you feel, and I think it was a great lesson." He finished and smirks at me.

I sit there thinking, but not for long, because I wanted to come up with a remark, "Nicholas Rory Hawthorne, are you hitting on me?" I say with a smile in my voice. He laughs and at that moment I know that I trust Nicholas Hawthorne. I want to tell him about the horrifying thing I saw on TV last night. Sure, he probably already knows about it, but he didn't see what I saw.

"Want to know my secret?" I say softly, not promiscuously or sexy, just softly. Nick's face perks up and he says "Yes!" sarcastically over excited, but I can tell he actually wants to know. All of a sudden Nick is falling down the tree I just remembered we were in. I laughed, I haven't laughed like this in a while. My voice is so filled with joy; I can't even tell it's my own voice. I looked down to see if he is alright and he looks up at my face, giving me thumbs up notifying he was alright. He is laughing now too, but probably at my reaction. I grab my bow and I'm climbed down the tree.

So hunting with nick was fun, even though we didn't even get anything, I knew mom would be angry. Nick said that we would hunt together again, I can't even begin to picture my father's reaction when he finds out I'm hunting with Gale's son. We're walking past the Hob which is oddly empty . We're still laughing about Nick's little fall

"Yea, you're really good at hunting! You can barely hunt with your eyes open, let alone clos-"We're joking around when my words are cut off by a scream, A shriek that reminds me of the girl in the arena.

"This is completely unfair!" she is yelling. The yelling seems to be coming from the square, I look at Nick and we immediately run towards the yelling. When we get there, I figure out where the hole District 12 is. I immediately spot my mom being pulled by dad away from a girl with bubble gum pink hair. Peacekeepers are trying to get to mom but dad is keeping them off. Nick looks at me, but I can't look back, because I know what's going on.

"Katniss, darling, I'm so very sorry, it seems as though all these years, Snow had a secret family, and his grandson assassinated the old president. He took over as leader and his first order was to reinforce the Hunger Games. "


	8. Chapter 8

I gasp and stumble over my feet, and I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for the last fifteen seconds. Nick catches me and puts me back on my feet. I'm running through the crowd, pushing people. I don't know where I'm headed but I'm looking for Will. Upon the podium area in front of the Justice building, the girl with the bubblegum pink hair seems nervous as the rest of the crowd is freaking out. I see mom coming into the crowd, crying, with dad at her side.

"Peeta, how is Effie doing this!" she buries her head into dad's shoulder. "It wasn't her fault Katniss." He is trying to comfort mom, but I know it won't help. My eyes are red I can tell I feel them burning up from me trying to wipe away the tears. I'm walking towards mom and dad because I don't know what else to do. When dad sees me his face is filled with so much pain, it hurts to look at his face. I'm hugging mom and dad both when I notice from the corner of my eye I see Will. Standing there, his face filled with worriedness. Poor Will, he is so little, and not powerful. I may stand a chance if I get reaped, but him, he stands no chance. He barely knows how to hunt. Will comes over and we're having a family moment. All of us wrapped around each other, mom is kissing my brothers blond curls and dad is looking into my eyes telling me it will alright.

"What a touching moment" We turn out head in unison, seeing Haymitch. Drunk. It really sucks seeing him as a grouchy old man, because the real Haymitch, the sober one, was great. We all ignore him tough.

The pink haired girl, Effie, comes down from the steps in front of the Justice building. And walks to mom and gives her a hug. "I'm so sorry Katniss." Effie whispers. Mom looks up at Effie.

"It's unfair. You know who they're going to pick, the names, they're rigged! Just for a good show!" Effie pats mom on the back and goes back to the podium. Mom is right; there is no chance for Will and me to not get picked.

"Ok, Everyone." Effie starts, "I need girls from ages to 12-18 on this side and boys from ages 12-18 on the other side." Mom and dad hug us both and dad kisses me on the forehead. Me and will look at each other and I nod my head. I don't want to hug him, because that's like saying goodbye. He understands because he doesn't hug me and we walk opposite ways.

"Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be_ ever_ in your favor." I wipe away my tears, there were cameras and we all knew who was getting reaped.

"Ladies first!" she says cheerfully. She pulls out a paper and unwraps it and her face darkens.

"Hailey Mellark!" she says and I can't believe this is happening. I might faint, I might cry. No, I can't cry, that's the one thing I can't do. I walk towards the Justice Building, my legs quivering. I stand up there in front of the cameras and Effie hugs me, looking into my eyes with sadness.

She walks back to the names. "Gentlemen," she says and puts her hand in the bowl and pulls out none other than

"William Mellark!" she makes a quiet noise. I immediately find Will's scared face; he stands up and starts walking. I then look at mom her hand clutched in dad's arms. Will is halfway down the aisle when a deep voice says

"I volunteer. I volunteer for him." I look at Nicholas Hawthorne's face. I am in shock and so is Will, he looks back at him and Nick walks forward. I can't thank him enough for volunteering for my brother, but it won't be able to fight against him either. Effie has a big smile on her face. Dad is shocked; mom is looking at Nick's every step. Then I find Gale and his wife, Fawna, I remember Nick calling her. She was beautiful, even crying. Gale I could tell was worried for his son, but part of him looked understanding.

Nick took his spot next to me and not caring who saw, I hugged him whispering "Thank you," In his ear. He nods his head and looks deeply in my eyes. I really hope I didn't have to kill this boy that saved my brother's life.


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry the last two chapters have been short, hope you enjoy! Reviews are much appreciated!3 **

My heart is racing when I look back at mom and dad as they start pulling us away. Mom is doing nothing to hide her sadness while dad is trying everything to stay strong. Nick and I are holding hands and surprisingly I'm not crying. Maybe it's the thought that Will is going to be safe. But I know I'm not a contender. I'm not as god as mom, I wasn't as brave. I have the face of the Girl on Fire, but not the heart.

Peacekeepers push us away from the crowd, and I'm still trying to hold on to Nick's hand but it's hard. The peacekeepers are pushing us through the Justice Building and locking us in different rooms. I feel like I just got arrested. I'm the property of the Capitol now.

Mom and dad come to see me first. Although they will by my mentors, mom says once we get on the train there isn't much privacy. I'm happy both of them will be with me in the Capitol. We sit in silence for a few minutes until mom reaches into her pocket.

"Hailey, I want you to wear this." She looks me deep in the eyes. I look in the palm of her hand, it's the mockingjay pin. She pins it over my heart. She wore this in her games, she tells me, but I already know. I'm considering telling them I saw the games when Peacekeepers escort them out, and ruin my chance. The next visitor is Will.

I get up from my seat immediately running into his arms. We stand in each other's arms in silence until he says

"That Guy," he begins trying to sound tough. "He shouldn't have volunteered I would have protected you." I sob quietly, pulling him away, sitting back down on the bench and he sits next to me. I stare into the eyes I see too often, Gray shiny ones.

"No, Will, we could have both died. And now when I die, mom and dad will have you still." Will's face looks furious, like he is mad at me for having no confidence.

"Don't think like that Hailey, you're going to win." I look at him, my brother; I realize how much it would hurt me if I lost him, picturing what he is going through with me. He doesn't deserve to go through something like this. When I'm looking at his face I notice how he looks a lot like dad did when I watched the Hunger Games. I'm glad Will isn't in the games. I need to thank Nick again. Nick, my heart aches thinking of him.

"Where are you staying when were in the Capitol." I say switching the topic. He looks at me and rolls his eyes.

"With Haymitch, I probably will starve, while he drinks himself to death." We laugh and sit together until the peacekeepers order him out.

The next is the drunken mess himself, Haymitch. But he isn't drunk, which I find weird. I guess alcohol just doesn't keep him drunk that long anymore. When I see him, I'm reminded of the secret we share, so I sit looking down at the ground. Haymitch sits down next to me patting my back while I am sniffling trying to hold in my tears.

Haymitch is telling me that everything will be okay, that if I remember what mom did in the games, learn from her mistakes and note what she did that helped her. Haymitch is smart when it comes to the games, so I listen. I wish Haymitch would come; I'll miss him oddly enough.

"Stay alive kid." He says followed by a wink. I smile and he walks out of the door.

I don't expect anyone else so I get up from the bench I am sitting on but behind me is Gale Hawthorne.

"Man, this reminds me of when I said goodbye to Katniss" he says looking around the room and finally back at me.

"How are you handling this?" I look up at him as if I am going to say something serious. "Fantastic." I say sarcastically and he laughs.

"How's Nick?" I ask because I am purely interested in how he is doing. Gale snorts

"A hell of a lot better than his mother." I think about Fawna, how upset she must be. She seemed like a wreck when I saw her last.

"I can't thank Nick enough for doing that for my brother." I look at Gale.

"I guess I pounded in his head if you don't go out on a limb for a girl you care about, you'll lose her." He smirks, and I blush covering my cheek with my hand.

You know Gale, you aren't the bad guy, I'm sorry I ever thought that." Gale was just a boy who was in love and got hurt. He loved my mom; I could tell, but he loved her so much, that he settles for what she wanted most, Peeta Mellark. He looks at me, warmness in his eyes.

"Thanks Hailey, can you pass that along to your mother?" he says causally, as if me and son aren't about to be in danger of our lives, I laugh.

"Will do Mr. Hawthorne." He wishes me good luck and walks towards the door. "Gale." I say, he turns his body, giving me full attention. "Make sure my brother eats when were gone, ok?" he smiles

"Sure thing, but I need something in return," I look at him waiting for him to continue. "Keep Nick out of trouble." I laugh nodding my head. He walks out and I feel more alone than I ever had. But I only have maybe 10 seconds until I'm pulled out of my room and placed on the train.


	10. Chapter 10

When I'm placed on the train, Nick comes one right after me and he sits next to me on the booth I am sitting on.

"You know, Hailey Primrose Mellark, you never told me your secret, I feel quite jipped." Why is this kid so charming? I look at the smile on his face, and it makes me smile back. I really don't like how he makes me feel so vulnerable. So of course I can't hold on to secret, because his smirking face is reeling me in.

I tell Nick how I stayed up to watch the 74th Hunger Games, every scary and disturbing detail, I didn't realize I was crying and how frantic I sounded, until I got up to telling him about my nightmare. I tell him about how he was trying to kill me.

I realize that he is staring at me so intensely with warmness in his eyes, so much like Gale. He is hugging me, telling me to relax, that he never plans to kill me. Which I find odd, since he is supposed to be planning my death soon anyway.

"Shh… Hailey, relax." He is gripping me and his grip is just too perfect to let it go, so I don't. I look back up at his face.

"I can't Nick, every time I close my eyes, it comes back. Everything." I wipe my eyes, calming down. I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm usually the strong one, holding in everything, and handling them by myself, I barely tell my parents about my feelings, what makes it so easy to tell this boy I barely know? What is it about this boy that I can't figure out?

My eyes are getting heavy, Nick can tell I'm tired, he lets go of the grip we were in, putting his head on his shoulder and wraps my legs around his. I feel perfect, I feel like I can't be harmed. I feel like I'm supposed to be in Nick's lap wrapped around him. "Sleep." He says. "If you have a nightmare, I'll wake you up" I don't have time to thank him or object because I fall asleep as soon as my head hits his broad shoulder.

He couldn't keep them away, the nightmares. This one was different though, it started with me and Nick, sitting in a cave, much like the one mom and dad were in. At first I didn't think it was a bad dream. Nick and I were cuddled together around a warm fire. We were even talking, but then from a shadow in the cave, I spot a figure. I gasp as the figure moves towards us, its Cato.

Nick and I run as fast as we can. Cato finds us hiding behind a big tree. The smile on his face is so devious, like he is going to enjoy killing us. Cato is attacking Nick; I'm screaming, "NICK NO! CATO GET AWAY FROM NICK." He kills nick, throwing a knife into his chest. Nick is laying there in his pool of blood, it's a horrifying sight, and it feels too real. I'm waiting for Cato to get me next. But he doesn't,

Because the next thing I see are mom and dad yelling at Nick.

"What did she say!" Dad isn't yelling, that was mom's voice. Dad looks madder at the fact that Nick and I were cuddled on the booth. I'm shaking from the dream, still shocked that Nick is still alive, next to me. Mom sees me and comes closer while dad is eyeing Nick. I think Nick feels his vibe because he is backing away from me talking my head off his chest and unwraps my legs from his lap.

"Hailey, I need you to tell me what your dream was about." I could tell mom was trying to be calm but even in my hazy view I could tell she was about to freak out. I know now, definitely that she heard me yell Cato. Nick stands up awkwardly and says "I'm going to find Effie." Before leaving, he locks his eyes on mine and walks out before dad can chase him out of the room.

I sit up and clear my throat and come clean about the whole thing. I tell them every detail, like I told Nick, except it's harder because instead of his warm eyes, I see mom's empty stare. Looking at mom while she is having a moment like that is painful so I mostly look at dad, telling him everything I saw. Then I tell them about my nightmares and how the ghost of Cato is in my mind and won't go out.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"I knew you guys didn't want me know this stuff, and I really wish I didn't watch it." Moms face is still empty. "Sorry Mom." I say hugging her, I'm happy when I realize she hugs me back. "If it makes it better, I didn't see the ending, Haymitch made me turn it off." I don't know if it made it better at all since I'm sure there was no more violence.

Mom laughs unexpectedly, its soft, but it's still a laugh. "The most infamous part?" Now it's dad turn to laugh, leaving me wondering what they were talking about.

"Well you were madly in love." Dad says in a sarcastic tone, leaving me even more confused. The two of them are laughing like there isn't a care in the world. Its nice seeing them like this even though I'm not sure why.

"What?" I say, realizing that I am very tired and the little nap did nothing. They're looking at each other with smiles on their faces. "Whatever, I'm tired, goodnight." I say to them. I get up leaving them to reminisce about the past.

In the next room I find Effie, though it's nice to see another face, I'm disappointed that it isn't Nick.

"Hailey! Oh my, you need to get your beauty rest!" Effie leads me to a room. It's simple inside, a bed and a dresser. I don't bother to change my clothes. I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow; it's actually an enjoyable sleep. No nightmares, I guess I feel less guilty. I'm not over the things I saw, but I feel a little bit safer, now that my parents know and Nick.

I wake up to Effie knocking on the door. "Wake up! It's going to be a big big day!" her excitement annoys me, maybe because I just woke up. I grab clothes and quickly change, because I find myself very hungry.

I walk out of the door of my room, letting my nose lead me towards the food. When I get to the table I see Effie unsuccessfully trying to start a conversation between Dad and Nick, but Nick is sitting awkwardly not talking, he is acting nothing like the guy that I feel vulnerable with. I can't help but laugh at the sight of it; this causes all of them to look at me. And I look back at all three of them,

Effie, her pale face, caked with makeup that was way too bright for my taste, she looks excited, and I'm not sure why.

Dad looks at me, but he realizes Nick is staring at me, he looks back at him, and he is always looking at Nick.

And saving the best face for last I look at Nick, who no doubt is curious about my dream I had last night. I say nothing though and sit down in the seat between Nick and dad, guessing it was meant for me to sit in.


	11. Chapter 11

"Where mom?" I say to dad softly. He finishes taking a sip of his drink and then says, "I let her sleep in, she needed the rest." Mom did use all her energy yesterday crying, between the reaping and my secret. I'm suddenly thinking of Will, I don't know how he got into my head, but I'm picturing him back in 12, watching my face on the TV. Tonight will be the first he sees of me on the television.

I start eating because I don't really want to think right now. I rather stuff my face with the deliciously smelling food. Halfway through the meal we see mom behind us, more relaxed and put together that she was yesterday. Which is good, since she is going to be filmed a lot today. She sits next to dad and kisses his cheek as he is chewing a piece of toast. Were all eating in silence, while Effie is jabbering on about our plans for the day.

"You two should get dressed, I put decent clothes in your dressers, and you will find them easily." Effie is talking directly to me and Nick, while mom and dad are talking about something else. Nick and I finish our meals and walk down the hall together. We turn down the corner where my door is. I stop at my door and turn the knob. Behind me is Nick, walking casually into my room. I full with wonder with why he followed me, but I sort of already know. He sits on my bed as I walk to the mirror over my dresser. I'm stroking a brush through my hair, trying to act just as causal as Nick was. But my curiosity couldn't tolerate staying in any longer.

"What are you doing Nick?" I say. He answers quickly

"What was your dream about last night?" I feel his eyes on me while I am staring into my own eyes in my reflection of the mirror. "It's not that important" I don't want to tell him, because I will have to tell him about the Cave and how we cuddled. I don't want to let Nick know he has the power to make me weak.

"It just sounded like a weird dream, one second you were all happy and giggling, saying 'oh, Nick I love you too.' And the next you were screaming."

I snap my head towards him sitting on my bed feeling the blush rise to my cheeks. I tried to forget about that. The words I spoke to him in the cave. But I remember now, we were sitting together when Nick told me he loved me and I remember happily replying that I loved him too. I turn back not wanting him to see my blush.

"You and I were teamed up; Cato found us and killed you. That's all." I say rushing my words out of my mouth, embarrassed by my dream.

"What does that have to do with you loving me?" he is smirking now, he is just doing this for enjoyment. He wants to make my cheeks burst up in flames with the heat my blushing is creating.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing Nick." I say getting angered. He laughs softly.

"Your dad didn't hear you, if that's what your worried about," his smile stops abruptly. "He would have killed me by now." But I'm not worried that my dad heard I was worried if Nick heard and he did. But I smile after he says that, Dad sure did hate Nick. He's made it clear.

"I'm glad you find your father hating me funny, he is my mentor, you know? Being hated by your mentor isn't the best thing ever." He gets up from my bed to leave the room, so I can finally get ready.

When he opens the door, mom is standing outside with her hands raised like she was about to open the door. Nick's face is priceless because he probably expects dad to be there, but he isn't. Nick whispers sorry and darts out of the room, I can't help but laugh.

Mom walks in with her eyebrows raised, and I laugh because mom knows if we were doing anything embarrassing I would be blushing. I obviously have a low tolerance for blushing. Mom gets the clothes Effie was talking about.

After I change, mom does my hair, she puts my hair in a braid and I pull it over my shoulder. I look at the mirror. I'm not wearing anything spectacular; mom says that they're going to put me into the remake center right away. I'm wearing a light blue dress it goes midway to my calf and black flats on my feet. It's not like I never dressed up before, but I'm not used to looking like this. It's weird seeing my hair perfectly together, no missing strands fleeing from my braid.

Effie comes in telling us that they are about to show all the reapings on the TV. I didn't really want to watch all of them. It would bring me back to reality that those normal people will be trying to kill me soon.

We all sit in front of the TV, watching Districts 1, 2 and 3 tributes getting chosen. I forget their faces and names quickly as soon as new faces are introduced.

In District 4 though I notice a girl with dark hair and green eyes, standing were mentors usually stand. She wasn't the prettiest girl, but she had a natural beauty to her. She looks frightened like she is holding in a scream. I feel like I know her face. I look at my parents; they are glaring at each other as if talking through each other minds.

Then I remember, when I was little maybe 10, Will and I snooping around the house found a scrapbook. It was filled of pictures of people I never met, but knew. There was a lot of Prim, with a goat, and another one with a cat lying on her stomach. I remember this lady because she is Annie Cresta. There was a picture of her and her husband Finnick Odair. I remember the picture so clear now. Annie's hair was in a fancy up do, and she was wearing a beautiful white dress. Next to her was Finnick, who had an attractive looking face, he was wearing a simple black tux and his smile was so big it was hard to look at anything else in the picture. They had a son before Finnick died; I know that because there was a picture of the baby in the scrapbook. Annie's son must be too old for the reaping, or the capitol would make sure it was him who got reaped instead of a tall skinny blond kid, like I got reaped instead of every other girl in district 12.

Then we eventually get to District 12. And there are too many shots of mom and dad, since they are the most known faces in Panem. Then is shows me, my face looks pale but I think I did a good job at hiding my fright. I looked strong, like I accepted my fate. When Will is chosen, I notice the camera lingering on Nick's face. He looked worried, shocked I guess. I was too busy looking at will to even notice Nick at a time like that.

The announcer on the TV is then going on about me of course, telling everyone watching that I am the daughter of Katniss and Peeta Mellark, as if everyone didn't know. They're making comparison to me and my parents faces. There using old pictures of mom and dad from their hunger games. "…And of course the eyes of her father, beautiful girl really, just look at her roots! Two pretty parents and you end up with a beautiful child." The announcer is talking over the clips of my face. This is ridiculous I'm thinking inside my head.

After we watch that the train seems to slow down, were at the Capitol. I look out the train window to see what I've only seen on TV. The buildings here are big and intimidating. There are people pointing to the train, realizing it's from District 12.

Mom was right, the next second I am thrown into the remake center. I am told to tale off my clothes off and put the robe the laid out for me. They lay me down on a hospital-like bed, they're waiting for the stylist to come I think. There are 4 girls, the prep team they call themselves. They are the most bizarre looking people I have ever seen. Its' hard to look at them and call them girls.

They're ripping every hair, besides the ones on my head, off my body. I want to scream, out in pain. The legs are the worst; I began tearing up once they're halfway done. The strange looking group tries to comfort me though. One in particular had yellow hair and a light green skin that made her look like she was sick. I think her name was Avia. She calmed me down a bit, but her purple eyes freaked me out too.

"Don't worry sweetheart, you'll look gorgeous when were done." The girl with the cat like eyes that were colored red says. I'm not even sure I'll have any hair left after they're done.

When they are done waxing all my hair off, I realized I don't like having all my leg hair or any hair off my body. I felt bare, like a doll. How do Capitol people do this?

After a few minutes of sitting in my robe, feeling hairless, a man who doesn't look like a Capitol freak walks in. he has bright yellow eyes, but that's where the weirdness stops. He has a normal bronze hair color, that is natural and a skin tone that didn't look painted. He looks at me looking me up and down. He comes closer extending his hand.

"Hello I'm Evertt, you must be Hailey?" the man says. I take his hand in mine and shake it; I notice how bare my arm looks when I extend it. I nod my head and he rakes a chair nearby and pulls it closer, he sits down.

"If you haven't realized I'm your stylist" I look at him again, how can someone so normal be a capitol stylist. "I don't look like it, do I?" he says as if reading my mind.

"Let me guess? You're going to put me in the same outfit my mom was in?" he laughs as if he was expecting me to say that.

"Well your mother did look stunning in that fire outfit, didn't she?" I nod my head, it's true, mom did look beautiful in it, I'm sure I would too, but I wanted to be more than the girl on fire's daughter. "Nicholas' stylist and I think it's better off not to copy your mothers and fathers outfits"

He looks me in the eye, once again as if reading my mind says, "let's make you more that the daughter of the girl on fire's daughter. Let's make you Hailey Mellark."

I can't help but smile. Finally a sensible person.


	12. Chapter 12

Evertt puts me in the design right away, without hesitating. I don't get to even glance in a mirror before the prep team grabs me and sits me down in a chair. They're taking orders from Evertt; he is instructing them to do things with my hair, giving them all different types of commands.

Evertt and the prep team leave me in the room we are in, leaving me to evaluate myself in the mirror. I'm scared to look, and I hesitate to turn to the mirror at first. I breathe heavily and turn quickly so I don't have any time to change my mind. When I see myself I can see my eyes earing up. My hair was brought to the right side of my head, it wasn't curly, but it was wavier than normal. The waves looked natural even though they were not.

I'm wearing a sleek black dress that goes to my knee. Though I am already very slim, the dress is super sliming. The bottom of the dress hugs my leg and the tips of the dress are a perfect orangey red color imitating fire. The straps holding the dress up are medium width. Around my back and going through my elbows is a fiery red shawl. Maybe I wouldn't get my own nickname, but people will definitely remember me as Hailey Mellark.

I felt pretty, something I never felt. I always felt like the hunter girl with dirt under my nails. I've had boys have interest in me, but I never quite got why, now it's understandable to me as I'm wearing a Capitol dress, with Capitol makeup and hair. I felt like the prettiest girl in the world, not a single flaw in my body. I know I am acting extremely egotistical, but no one can hear my thoughts and I have never felt this way before in my life. So I allowed myself to be self-indulgent.

"We found this in the pocket of your jacket you wore here." I jump when I hear the high pitched voice behind me. It's Avia, the purple eyed one. I look in her hand, the mockingjay pin. I almost forgot about the little pin. She looks at me for a long time.

"Oh yes, my mother wanted me to wear it" I smile at Avia and take it from her, pinning it over my heart. Avia turns away quickly.

"Wait, thank you…thank you for making me pretty." I say to her. She turns her body smiling. Her teeth were sharp and bright.

"Oh darling, you're already a very beautiful girl, don't underrate yourself." I smile back at Avia. Its nice getting compliments and it does no harm to my self-esteem.

I'm taken to this big open area. I see all the other Districts are lining up with District 1 in the front and District 12 last, with Chariots next to them. I walk in and Evertt finds me immediately, he looks me up and down, like he did earlier, but this time the smile on his face is so big I can't help but smile back.

"You like?" he says, I nod my head and laugh at his excitement. Evertt leads me to 12's chariot. Then I see Nick. He is walking in through double doors. When I find him he is staring at me with his mouth half open staring at my body. And once again I feel myself blushing. He strolls over with his stylist, a light purple haired girl.

Nick is wearing black suit. On the edges of the suit is a fiery color that matches my shawl and the tips of my dress perfectly. He catches my eyes and he winks. If I thought Nick was extremely attractive, I have no idea when I thought of him now. Flawless, that's a perfect word. His brown hair was free and still looked as though someone tousled it, but it was perfect. He comes over and steps on the chariot. Evertt and the girl fixes Nick's suit jacket and then she comes over to fix my shawl.

"My name is Cherisa by the way, and you look very good Hailey." The girl says. I thank her and Evertt and Cherisa go off to the side. I feel Nick's eyes on me as I am staring blankly ahead to the District 11 tributes.

"You look gorgeous" he says so only I can hear. I try hard to blush, because frankly my cheeks are tired of being beet red at every one of Nick's words.

"You don't look so bad yourself Hawthorne." I saw coolly looking back at him. He smirks and I see once again his perfect dimple.

District 1's chariot springs forward and goes through the doors. I hear the crowd from over here. Through the doors, you go around the city circle and into the training center; we live and train there until the games.

Soon after District 1 leaves, it feels like seconds, District 11 leaves. Were next and last. Evertt and Cherisa come back over fixing us up one last time.

"Remember, Smiles! Bright eyes! Anything charming!" Cherisa says making sure we understand. Then before I know it we are heading into the doors, into the City Circle. I grip Nick's hand because I feel like I am going to fall out. I squeeze my hand then the door opens, revealing the bright huge City Circle.


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry it has taken me longer to update, I finished copying all the chapters I had pre written and I actually have to write now. So it will defiantly take me longer to update now, but I am still writing of course **

I feel a slight breeze as the chariot springs forward. I quickly glance at Nick's face, he is smiling. I can't help but think how perfect he looks. I look down at my dress, we look perfect together. For once I feel special. Weather it the Capitol's clothes, or being next to Nick, I feel special.

As soon as we emerge from the doors I hear the crowd screaming for us, yelling our names. I immediately feel overwhelmed. I've never seen this many people in real life, now they were all screaming my name. Well I shouldn't take all the credit. All the girls were screaming Nick's name. I look down and see our hands are still linked. I look up and can't help but smile. I'm smiling at everyone and blowing kisses to boys that catch my eyes, they love us. I finally get a glimpse of us on the big screen. Flawless, perfect and unbelievable, it doesn't look like Hailey Mellark, but somehow it is. Me and Nick's brown hair matches just as our outfits do and it makes us stand out.

It takes me halfway through the City Circle to realize this isn't really a dream. My lips hurt from smiling so big and nonstop. I suddenly feel warmness on my cheek. I turn my head to see Nick looking at my eyes with a big smile on his face. Everyone goes wild, and I though they couldn't get any crazier for us. I look back at him, back into those gray eyes. I'm hoping I'm not blushing, even if I was, I'm sure no one can notice with all my makeup on.

It takes a minute for everything to sink in when the chariot stops. Were once again surrounded by all the tribute, but now were in the training center. Our stylists immediately jump on us. "You were great you two!" Evertt says as Cherisa is pulling off my shawl.

Each district has a floor in the training center, where your whole team stays until the Games. We're waiting for everyone to go up to the floor, since as expected were the last ones to go up. When it is our turn Nick, Effie, and me ride up the elevator together. I don't know where Evertt and Cherisa go.

When we finally get up to floor 12 we walk out together while the whole time Effie is complimenting us happy as always. "You guys were perfect!" we say thank you and smile, but she goes on and on about how gorgeous she thought we were. "Oh and Hailey you blowing kisses! Every boy in the nation will fall under your spell!" I laugh "Oh and Nick the girls were drooling!" Nick smirks to himself but I catch a glance just in time to see

Mom and dad appear on our floor both wearing smiles. Mom is hugging me telling me I was beautiful, and even hugging Nick, telling him he was charming. Dad, despite the cheek kidding, compliments Nick, patting him on the back and kissing me on my forehead. I notice mom is wearing makeup, her arms seem more hairless than normal and she is wearing a violet dress, dad also is slightly dressed up too. We're all talking even Nick is getting engaged with the conversation about the chariot rides. Effie comes in,

"Come, we'll eat our meal in celebration of how great you two were!" before we eat me and nick take turns changing in the bathroom to something more comfortable but still isn't that casual, for me at least. We go to the table where there are plates and plates of food. I have never seen this much food, and this is coming from a baker's daughter.

Mom and dad keep looking around the room and it takes me awhile until I realize why. This is the same exact room there 16 year old selves sat in to eat their dinner, after their chariot rides. Though I would think there faces would be horrified remembering all those terrible memories. But they both have smiles on their faces. I can't tell if they're forced for me and Nick, but I know mom and dad are proud. I know this because even I am proud of myself.

We eat for a long time, all of us stuffing our faces. Even Effie eats more food than she would care to admit. Eventually everyone files out one by one. Effie excuses herself saying it was too late for her. Dad gets pulled out to answer the phone, Haymitch was calling. Nick leaves and goes to the room Effie showed him to earlier, which leaves me and mom. We're not eating anymore, we about ate everything we wanted to by now.

"How's your stylist?" Mom asks as I am taking a sip of my water. I nod my head thinking of Evertt, he was kind and I liked the fact that he wasn't all freaky as the other Capitol citizens. So yea he was nice, and besides that he knows how to make me look great.

"Yea he is nice, why?" I ask. "Just wondering," Her lipsticked lips smile slightly its weird seeing mom with makeup, she looks younger.

"When you got styled today did you get your old stylist?" I blurt out the answer without thinking about it, but I was curious. Mom's smile fades slowly.

"No." she answers quietly. "Cinna died a while ago." She looks sad, but her tone of voice is not. I look at her and notice she is looking into something into the distance. She does this a lot I've notice, when something troubles her. Just staring at nothing, either thinking about something or trying not to think about something.

I decide not to ask about Cinna anymore. But to my surprise mom starts a conversation about him. She tells me that he was her best friend here and how close they were. She tells me that he died right before the rebellion. The peacekeepers beat him up. The story is horrifying but mom does not frown nor cry. She smiles in the memory of Cinna and I can tell how much he meant to her.

"I wish he could be alive for this. You would have no idea the costume he would have created for you." Her smile lightens my heart. It's nice to see mom smiling so much.

When I finally decide to go to my room I open the door slowly. This is her room, I know it is. Mom's room, where she stayed for her first and second games. The room is small but its fine, but I can't stop thinking about mom sitting on the bed

I picture sixteen year old mom sitting in here, frighten for her life, thinking the same thing I'm thinking. At least Will is safe, except mom was thinking, at least Prim is safe. Besides our looks and stubbornness, mom and I have something else in common, our need to protect our little siblings.

Then I'm thinking, What if I don't make it. I should just shut off my mind now; I always knew I wouldn't be able to make it out alive. Besides I want Nick to win, I couldn't go back to District 12 with the death of Gale's son lingering over me. Romantic interest or not, I couldn't go back without him.

I'm picturing our family a photo without me, without me and Will in the front. Instead Will would be in the middle of mom and dad with them on either side of him. At least they have Will, I think. If Nick died, Gale and Fawna would have no one, sixteen years gone to waste.

And that's when I decide I want to protect Nick in this game. He can do it by himself but for some reason I feel the need to help him, maybe it's because I want to spend my last moments with the person who has been closer to being a friend than anyone has been my whole life.


	14. Chapter 14

Effie is calling at my door that today is going to be a big big big day, so I have no choice but to get up. Today is a big day I guess, the first day of training; I get up from the bed dragging my still sleepy legs behind me. I change into an outfit that is left for me outside the closet. Though I am still quite full from the meal last night, I know I have to go out to breakfast. I clean up my appearance so I don't look like I just rolled out of bed.

When I go out I smell the food and even thinking about eating makes me sick I am so full. I see mom, dad and Effie sitting around the table. Most of them are not eating as much normal people would for breakfast; I guess they must still be full like me.

I sit down next to mom taking a glass of orange juice and sip it slowly. I take a few nibbles out of a piece of toast. By the time there are three bites missing from my piece of toast Nick comes out of his room looking just as sleepy as me.

"How does the training center work?" I ask. I am curious about how all twenty tributes will be in the same room together all training. "There are different stations, so you go where you want to." Mom says after taking a sip of her drink. So I could be separated from Nick? Not that I think we should be together, but I wanted to see if he would want to work with me in the arena, so I can keep him alive of course.

"Just a word of advice, you shouldn't be going to the stations you already have strength in, it's best to not let the other tributes to see your talents." Dad says, so no knives for me or Nick. Nick and I nod our heads and I realize it is a good strategy. If the other tributes, the careers in particular, found out that I was handy with a knife, I would be a big target. They wouldn't let me leave the cornucopia with even a pocket knife. Effie tells us training starts at ten, its 9:30 now, we have a half hour.

Mom and dad go back into their room, and Effie is still lingering around the table. I want to talk to Nick alone, ask him to be in an alliance with me. I don't even think about being rejected, because I don't think he will. Being aligned with me is the best chance for him. Nick is standing up like he is getting ready to go back into his room. Effie is heading towards the elevator, finally I say in my head.

"Nick, come here." I say turning towards his direction. He stops short and turns his head, looking at me, before coming over. He walks over to me waiting for me to talk. I can't seem to get anything out of my mouth, which is weird. I wasn't nervous until I actually had to say something to say to his face.

"Uh, so in the training center, do you…uh… want to stick together?" I didn't ask him what I wanted to but I think he got it.

"Hmm… Mellark are you perhaps asking me into an alliance?" he says charmingly. I wish we could skip the flirting, it was useless anyway.

"Yea I guess I am." I say straight forward, I am actually proud of myself for saying it as coolly as I did. He smiles, of course he smiles. The warmness of his smile takes over me, and once again I am left dumfounded by Nick.

"Sounds good." He adds before exiting the room, leaving me alone to think about Nick's perfect dimple, or his perfect hair.

When it's ten Effie comes and gets Nick and I. I try not looking at Nick, because I'm slightly embarrassed that I asked him to be in my alliance but I'll get over it. We go into the elevator; the training center is below all the floors for the tributes and the ride takes longer than it would be going up to this floor, but not that long.

The training center is a big a room, with all different kinds of weapons. There's knifes, swords, maces, and spears, most of which I never even picked up in my life. There's the archery section, which a huge collection of bows and arrows. There's a knot tying station and a camouflage station with all different paints. I look around at the tributes and most look generally scared.

Someone tells us the rules of the training center and says to make the best of it. When he is done and says to go ahead and start training, Nick turns to me. "So ally, where you want to go first?" I look around seeing most of the kids at the weapons, whether it is archery or the spears.

"Camouflage?" I say, as I notice it is empty and no one seems to be going there. He nods his head and together we walk towards the table. The person there seems happy to see us. We start off making a perfect color of mud on our arms. I would say camouflage is one of my talents, but no one is going to kill me because I know how to blend in with the ground. I guess I get this talent from my dad, or from painting the cakes, or something.

It takes a while for Nick to get the right color and I can see him getting frustrated that he can't get it right away like I can. And it makes me laugh slightly not seeing him all charming. When he gets the right color he looks at me and says "alright, I think I'm done with camouflaging my arm." I laugh softly.

He picks archery next, I wouldn't mind being better and shooting a bow. I pick a bow that is a good size and looks like it is good, it will take a while to get used to since I'm used to my one back home.

I look to see if Nick has chosen his bow yet, but he is looking over at the District 2 tributes. The boy one is probably our age but he looks big and pretty strong, the girl on the other hand is small, she looks week. I should not underestimate anyone though so I stop jumping to conclusions. He sees me looking at him, "I knew then back when I lived in 2." As I thought it would be district 2 is surrounded by district 1 and 3 already forming the careers.

The careers notice me and Nick, The boy, his name was Andric I remember now, waves his hand in the air. "Hey Nick, want to join?" Andric is pointing towards the spears everyone in the group are holding. Nick looks at me and back at Andric. Nick's is going to leave, great. Nick grabs a Bow on the table and says, "Nah, I think I'm going to stay over here with Hailey."

Nick rejected the careers, for me. Part of me wanted him to go to the careers, that way he can be paired with them, have an easy path through the game, but another part didn't want Nick to leave me. "Nick you could have gone and paired up with your friends, I don't care." I say this even though I would care. He shakes his head.

"Well Andric and Ella have never been my friends, I don't like 'em that much," he takes a sheath of arrows "Besides, I already said you would be my ally." He says smiling at me. The careers are looking at us wondering why Nick would want to stay with the girl from District 12

"Yea, but we never made anything official." I say quietly, feeling the eyes of the careers on me. I didn't want to draw more attention to us.

"Well if it bothers you that much Hailey, let's make it official in the only way I know how." He comes up to me putting his pinky up to my face. "Pinky promise?" I can't help but laugh. He is cheesy, but I think it is cute, and I want to trust he won't leave so I wrap my pinkie around his and we hold it for a while until we start shooting our bows.

When we are shooting bows it's like were hunting together again, were laughing, goofing around and it's great. Nick is prancing around like an idiot trying to show off. "I bet you I can shoot all bull's eye." I roll my eyes, he is good, but he isn't that good. He shoots his arrows and they land nowhere he wanted them to. I laugh at him struggling to get the arrows.

Then from behind me I hear a slight cough. I turn quickly to see a boy and a girl. The girl is short and has long blonde hair the boy next to her is way taller than her, he too has blond hair. The patches on their arms have a number 4.

"Hello, I'm Jace and this is Keanan." The blonde girl says. Keanan raises his hand and gives a smile. I smile back at the two of them, they seem nice.

"I'm Hailey, and that over there is Nick." I say pointing to Nick, who is picking out a new bow because he swears it was the bow's fault he didn't get a bull's eye. I stare back at Jace and Keanan, wondering what they want.

"We wanted to know if you wanted to sit with us during lunch?" Sitting with other people would be nice, but I know sitting together isn't all that they want; they want to be in alliance. I could tell the way Jace swallowed, that she was afraid I would reject it. But they seem nice and look like they could be trusted.

"Who else is going to be sitting with us?" I said, wondering what other Districts we would be working with.

"District 10." Keanan says nodding his head towards two people by the knot tying station. The girl is 18 I remembered hearing that when we watched District 10's reaping on the train. I remember that because the boy next to her is this week small boy who is 12. The freckles on his face cover up everything else. He looks scared and it kind of makes me sad to see him.

"Yea, alright, sounds good." I smile at Jace and then at Keanan. They smile back and leave going back to throwing spears. When they leave Nick comes up asking me what District 4 wanted. I tell him that they wanted to sit together at lunch with District 10. Nick seems cool about it, but he does seem a bit curious.

We go back to shooting our bows and I am actually getting a little better, of course I should practice more and I'll probably ask mom for a few tips on shooting accurately.

I look at Nick ready to shoot his bow, his form is perfect, his elbow is behind his shoulder and his eyes are staring at the target, he waits a few seconds, standing there still, not moving at all. Then he releases the bow's string and the arrow goes flying. I look at the target and see that his arrow landing exactly where he wanted it to, a bull's eye.


	15. Chapter 15

When it's time for lunch all twenty four of us are going into this big area with tons of tables. There is food around the room on carts, we serve ourselves. The careers of course sit together and the rest of us just kind of fan out wherever. I see Jace and Keanan right away so I pull Nick towards the table. Keanan and Jace say hi to Nick and we sit down.

"So, what made you guys what to be partnered with District 12." Nick says with a laugh, it makes them laugh too, I like how there is a good feeling between the table, no awkwardness.

"Our mentor, Annie, said that if we wanted reliable allies we should come to you." Keanan says shaking his head. "I don't quite know what she meant by that, but we figured it's smart to listen to your mentor." Nick and I laugh softy

"Annie knew my parents, during the rebellion, that's why" I say. We get up and heads towards the food, I don't get much. When we get back to the table I sit back down in the seat I picked before, next to Nick. Then from behind Keanan I see District 10 coming towards our table.

"Hello, I'm Clora." She says smiling and motioning behind her she says "And this is Kyler." The boy just glances at me and Nick and doesn't say anything; he doesn't crack a smile or nothing. He is scared, he _is_ only twelve. I wave at Kyler and say hello to Clora.

"So how is everyone's experience in the Capitol?" we all laugh at Nick as he is being his charming self and I want to hug him for making it feel so welcoming at the table.

"Oh, it's so fun, isn't it Jace?" Keanan and Jace laugh "How's life in District 12?" Keanan continues. He is looking at Nick when he asks this so I leave it for him to answer.

"Not quite sure, I was only there for a day until the reaping." He laughs slightly "What a house warming gift." After say this he takes a long sip of his drink. It seems so long ago I was in District 12 hunting with him, and my biggest worry was Gale Hawthorne.

"District 12's nice, boring, yes, but it's nice." I say smiling remember my house in victors village wishing I was there now lying in my bedroom. "How about District 4?"

"I liked it; I miss swimming in the creek already." Jace smiles at Keanan. District 4 is the fishing district so of course there was a lot of water, I don't know if Nick knew how to swim, but most people in District 12 didn't know how.

Mom used to take me and Will to this place far into the forest, it was probably an hour in but it was worth it. There was a creek up there; mom taught us how to swim in it. She used to sing and teach me and Will songs, only Will sounded good singing them though. The songs where beautiful, or maybe it was just her voice. My heart stings with the memory of mom's beautiful voice singing over the running water in the creek.

"Yes, even though you were a terrible fisher, you're a good swimmer." Keanan teases Jace.

"Oh you knew each other back in your district?" Clora says. This is the first word she said besides hello.

"Yep, best friends, isn't that right Jace?" Keanan says.

"Yep best friends since like the first day of preschool." Jace says after Keanan. Jace is moving pieces of food with her fork, not eating much, like me.

I feel bad for Jace and Keanan. The way they stuck together, it was hard not to see that they were friends. I thought it was hard being against Nick, someone I barely knew, but Jace and Keanan had been friends. They are close I can tell. It's saddens me just thinking about what would happen if one died and one lived. I put that though far into my head because I don't need to worry about that now.

"How about you guys, you know each other back in your District?" Jace says to Clora and Kyle. Kyler didn't glance up; it was going to be hard to gain his trust. Clora finishes taking a sip out of her cup since Kyler wouldn't talk.

"Sort of, he is my best friends little brother." She says, wow I notice now our team is probably the worst team ever created. There is Keanan and Jace who are best friends, Clora who wants to protect Kyler, for her friend. And then we got me and Nick, the two who have some kind of romantic interest going on. Well no one thinks that yet hopefully, I won't let them, I don't want to be the next pair of star-crossed lovers.

On the second day of training, our group mixes it up a bit. Nick and Keanan are throwing spears, while Jace, Clora, and I are tying some knots. Nick and Keanan try to involve Kyle in the spears but he lingers around the archery station. Jace turns out to be fun to hang out and I find myself liking her, which scares me away a little, given the case we're in. Clora is nice too, but quiet.

Clora stays at the knot tying station while Jace and I go to spears, which I'm actually quite good at. Jace picks up a new spear and glances behind her at Nick and Keanan who are having a sword fight. She looks at me a smile on her face.

"So what's up with you and Nick?" The question startles me and I look at Jace shaking my head not saying anything. "Oh, _come _on." She says "I'm not _that _stupid" I laugh covering up my nervousness. I wish it wasn't that obvious between me and Nick.

"Nothing, I swear, and even if there were something going on, we couldn't do anything about it." I say looking down at my spear. Jace gasps,

"Oh my god, Hailey you totally love him." I don't like how she is making this seem like we could work out, like we couldn't both die in the games. She is acting so cool about it.

"Shut up Jace." I say hiding a smile because I can't help but look at Nick through the corner of my eye. I see him running his hand through his hair and see his eyes sparkling with the laughter he just let out.

"Your secret's safe with me." Whispers Jace with a smile. There was no secret to keep because I was never going to admit anything about Nick, even in my head.

On the third day I was throwing spears again, seeing as I was getting really good. That's when Kyle came over. He looked at me as I was setting up myself to through my spear. I threw it and it was a good throw, but never as good as it would have been if I was through a knife. Kyler picks up a spear, it's taller than him.

"Wow, that spear is bigger than you." I say joking around, trying to make an effort with Kyler. When I look back at his small face I see a smile. His smile is nice; it reminds me how young he really is, younger than Will. We stay there throwing spears for a while, occasionally we would laugh and joke and I think relaxed him a bit.

On the third day of training, they call us one by one during lunch for our private sessions with the Gamemakers. I have been training for three days, and I barely have an idea what I am going to do. Mom and dad say that scores don't really matter, but I still want to make sure I do well. I might be a little rusty at knives, since I haven't used one since I left 12. They tell me not to worry so I try not to.

It's a long time until Nick gets called, I wish him luck and he leaves through the doors. I'm not saying anything I'm just staring at my plate swirling around my food with my fork. Jace, Keanan, Clora, and Kyler aren't talking much either since they can't talk about what happened with the Gamemakers.

Its maybe like fifteen minutes Nick comes back. He walks slowly to the table, I can't read his expression, he seems doesn't seem upset nor happy.

"Hailey Mellark." I jump at the sound of my name. When I am walking towards the door I feel like everyone is staring at me. I am the last one, I need to make myself noticeable, and the Gamemakers are probably bored out of their minds, seeing as though they already saw 23 other tributes.

When I walk in the Gamemakers are all staring at me intensely, there either curious to know what I will be doing, or there willing me to walk faster and get this over with.

It's as though my body walks me over to where I wanted to go without even thinking about it. I walk over to the knives; there is so much to choose from. I have been wanted to pick one up since I got in this room three days ago. I pick a medium size knife; I run my fingers over the sharp edges softly to test how sharp it is. It's very sharp, sharper than my knives back home ever have been. When I place the knife in my palm I get a memory of being in the woods back home.

I glance at the target in front of me and aim my knife where I wanted it to go. I throw the knife and it lands perfectly on the target, sticking to it. I look quickly, bull's eyes. I smile to myself, so I wasn't that bad. I miss the feeling of throwing a knife so I throw a couple more all, landing perfectly, except the last one; it's a few inches off.

Then when I am done with that I go over to the camouflage, it's my other strength. And dad also gave me tips on how to make the best mud color. But this time I had a different idea. I stand over the paints and I carefully choose a little bit of red and orange and mix them on my arm. When I am done I stand up to the wall holding my arm up. The red on my arm matches the wall's color behind it and my arm disappears.

I smile at the Gamemakers; some have smiles on their faces. But some who don't probably think I am just trying to charm them, so I take the smile of my face.

"Thank you Hailey, you may be dismissed." I smile again and go through the doors. I get directed to the elevator and am told to go to my floor after I wash the red paint off my arms.

I am quite confident with the performance I did; I think I showed both of my strengths and impressed them, though I don't think I deserve a major score. Part of me doesn't even want a high score, because then once again I would be compared to Katniss Everdeen. I don't say it allowed but I rather get a 5 then an 11 to match my mother.


	16. Chapter 16

Hours later, it's time to view our scores. Were all huddled around the table and I am digging my fingernails into my palm. The careers all get high scores in ranges of 8-10. Jace and Keanan both manage to get a 6, which is alright. The most surprising score was definitely Kyler. His face pops on the scream and surprisingly he gets a ten, what did this week little boy do to get such a high score? Clora pulls a 7, good for her I think.

They show Nick's face on the screen and put up the score next, at first I don't want to look, but I'm so tempted so I just look. There flashing next to his name is a ten, a_ ten_. I look at him and he has a smirk on his face, he catches me glancing at me and gives me a wink. I want to know how he pulled a score that high. Before I say anything I hear my name.

I see my picture and there it is my score, not bad at all, an eight. I'm happy with my score, not as good as Nick's, but I don't care. Mom and dad are congratulating us on our scores, since we actually did well. Effie is cheering for us, and hugging me and Nick.

It's time for dinner and I realize I haven't been eating that much and I am actually very hungry. I'm still very curious as to how Nick got a ten.

"How'd you get a ten?" I say to him.

"What's the matter Hailey? Jealous?" he says jokingly. I smile and shake my head to let him know I'm not. "Sorry can't tell you, it's top secret information between me and the Gamemakers." He says walking away.

"But Nick, we're allies, you pinky promised." I say widening my eyes towards his face when he turns around. He smiles and says.

"I didn't do anything special, I just did archery and knives, I guess I was really good." I trust Nick, but I find it hard to believe that he got that high of a score just doing normal stuff.

In the morning at breakfast Effie says we will begin training for our interviews. Hearing her say our interviews scares me. I really hope I can get on the stage and not faint, I'm not exactly very comfortable in front of the camera. Nick on the other hand will be great and charming, I know he will be, he's just a likable person, and it's not just because of his looks.

We are going to train together with Effie, but then we are going separately for strategy for our interview, me with my mother, and Nick with dad. The sessions are both four hours, so we start right away.

When we are with Effie she gives me a pair of heels, I just stare at them, I have never wore high heels in my life, and I could definitely be afraid I would make a fool of myself, falling on my face. I'm not lady-like at all when it comes to things like this, but no one can blame me. I spent most of my days in hunting boots.

"Put them on Hailey, There not for Nick." Effie says making a joke. At this moment I don't find it quite funny. But Nick does, he is laughing at me, motioning me to put them on. Effie comes back with a tie for Nick and when she is tying it around his neck I strap on the heels. I'm clutching the table close to me, not letting go. Effie could have at least given me smaller heels to start. Effie turns around to see me hunched over the table.

"_Oh_, Hailey." She sighs, "Can you at least try to be a little lady-like?" I can't help but feel a little embarrassed since Nick is there. He is trying to hide his smirk from me, without success. Effie takes my hands from the table holding me up, I feel actually confident until Effie let go and I feel like I will fall forward. I stand up straight and I am not going to walk a step, not with Nick watching me. Effie stands a few feet in front of me.

"Walk over to me," She says I look at her with a blank stare.

"Effie, are you serious, I can barely stand."

"I swear, your more like your mother than you know." She says sighing. "Just give it a shot, don't worry about looking good, just focus on walking and not falling." Easier said than done

At the end of three hours I manage to be able to walk over to one side of the room to the other, without falling. I get a little better at trying to look sexy as I walk but my legs just won't let me make long strides.

For the next hour Nick and I sit at the table practicing sitting up straight. Finally something that isn't that hard. Effie yells at Nick for slouching every time his back gets tired. Then Effie orders us to show her our best smiles, I can't help but glare at Nick's flawless smile.

"Nick, nice, charming," she looks at me I can hear the criticism already. "Hailey good, pretty, but you have a tendency to duck your head down when you smile…" she grabs my jaw lightly and pulls it up positioning it to a place that is not comfortable for me.

After that, eye contact more smiling, sitting, and hand gestures we finally are done with the four hours and it is time for one on one with our mentors.

Mom is waiting for me in the sitting room; she pats her hand down on the couch motioning me to sit. When I walk my feet burn, It still feels like I am wearing my heels and there digging into my feet. They still hurt when I sit down and I feel like taking off my shoes and rubbing them right now.

"How was training with Effie?" Mom asks with a smile, I don't know if she is asking as a mom as my mentor. I roll my eyes and mom laughs.

"Do you know how hard it is to walk in heels?" She nods her head laughing softly.

We talk a little about my training session with Effie and how I was at walking and smiling.

"So, your father and I talked about what we want your approached to be," she starts "You're obviously very liked already seeing as your name is well known. I feel like you can pull off a likeable persona." I would feel pressured if I had to be likeable, seeing dad's interview when he was likeable; he was naturally humors and was an easy talker. It probably was hard doing that when my personality with cameras related most to moms.

"I know what you're thinking, I wasn't able to pull of likeable like your father could, and rumor has it you take after me." She smiles at me "But I won't tell you what Haymitch told me when he was my mentor. 'You have as much charm as a dead slug.'" I can't help but laugh, I wonder if Haymitch had been sober when he said that, or he was just drunk and saying anything he felt like it.

"What did dad think I should do?" I ask her.

"Dad thinks likeable and charming is a good way to go. He had to give me pointers on how to be likeable, but I'm pretty sure you got enough of your father in you to pull off the Mellark charm." She's right, it's a good idea to be likeable and charming, and I already have a head start at that. I can act less stubborn on camera, I can act like my dad, and I still have likeableness in me. And I think I was ready for my interview.


	17. Chapter 17

**Oh my god this is a long chapter, I hope you like it since it is so freaking long, I'm sorry if it is too long for you, but I had to put this in one chapter. :P**

I wake up and I roll back over to the other side of my bed, I know what this day holds in front of me and I'm not that excited. The whole day is going to be spent getting ready for my interview. This day is for Evertt and the prep team, they need to make me look so good, no matter what I say people will gawk at me and automatically love me. I don't know how much longer I have until I need to get up, so I plop my head down on the cooler side of the pillow, just then my door is opening.

"Hailey, wake up." I hear coming from the other side of the room, I groan expressing everything I am feeling within it. "I know, I know, you have to get up though." I turn my head to see only the purple eyed girl from my prep team. Avia, I at least liked her. She helps me out of bed and she makes me change out my clothes I was sleeping in and change into a robe. We walk out of my room and I am so tired I don't even care that Nick is walking out of his room with his prep team, seeing me with bed hair and in a robe.

When we get to wherever we went Evertt is there looking into his sketch book intensely, he looks up looking me up and down like he so often does. It seems as though hair has grown back on my legs and I need to get waxed again, like I said I am not excited.

After hours of waxing my legs and trying different ways of doing my hair, Evertt finally decides what to do with my hair and I of course no nothing of what he is doing, I have to wait until the end. I can tell though my hair is up. Evertt leaves the room while the prep team goes to my make-up.

They get working on my face right away, putting long eye lashes that when I blink I can see the dark black lashes. They coat my lips with bright red lipstick, the same I wore for the chariot rides. When they are finished, as on cue Evertt walks back in with my dress, I can't see it though, it is covered. I am curious to see what I will be wearing on stage in front of all those people and cameras.

I start to peak over Everett's shoulder when he turns around, "Hey, no peeking, turn around and close your eyes." He says jokingly but I know he really doesn't want me to see so I turn towards the door with my eyes closed.

The next second I felt the fabric of the dress going around my body. The dress was strapless I guess because Evertt didn't put any straps on my shoulder, it takes all my will to not open my eyes and look down, I at least want to know the color. The fidgeting stops and there is silence in the room, not even a peep from my prep team who is usually chatting their heads off.

"Can I open my eyes?" I ask while my eyes are sealed tight. I hear a yes from Evertt and I don't hesitate to open my eyes. I fling them open to the mirror in front of me. Oh gosh, Evertt is perfect at designing dresses for me.

I look at my hair first, I was right it was up. All my hair is pulled to the side into a bun it's not perfectly neat but you can tell it was made by professionals. My bangs swooped over my forehead parting towards the right. There was one strand of hair that hung from my bun that was curled perfectly and rested on top of my right ear.

My dress, oh my dress, I loved it. The shiny gray color of it couldn't help but remind me of Nick's eyes. The dress really makes my Blue eyes pop and makes me love them even more than I did. The dress is floor length, my shoes I am wearing aren't as high as the ones Effie gave me to learn how to walk, so I feel confident standing there in them. The areas of the dress by my breasts have jewels, beautiful ones, there covering the tops of the dress. On my lower waist there is a clip that bunches up the dress, only a little, to make it beautiful. I can't look at myself without wondering, who is this women in front of me? When did I grow up?

"Oh Evertt, it's beautiful." I say breathlessly "Thank you."

"You're beautiful Hailey, Thank _you._" He smiles at me and he opens his arms to me and I don't hesitate to go in them. He hugs me carefully not to ruin my hair, when I am hugging I think of mom and Cinna, maybe I'll never have a relationship with Evertt like mom did with Cinna, but I still like Evertt, I loved the way he knew what I wanted to wear, what I was thinking and how I felt about things.

Evertt tells me he will see me right before I go on, I nod and he tells me mom is coming in to see me. Everyone leaves and I am walking around the small room in circles to get used to these shoes, I think I am able to, which is good. I am going for likeable, not clumsy.

Mom walks in, when she sees me she immediately gets a smile across her face. Her smile is contagious and makes me smile back at her too. She comes into my arm carefully hugging me.

"You look beautiful Hailey." She says looking into my eyes. I look at what mom is wearing, a medium length purple dress and her hair is wavy.

"Thank you, mom, so are you." She smiles at me and sits down on the chair I sat on while I was getting my hair done.

"Remember, you're going for charming and likeable." She starts "You have to make it seem like you're enjoying yourself, smile at the other tributes, laugh when they make jokes, and when your with Caesar act like your natural self, like your sitting down talking to Will." Oh how I wish I was sitting down and talking to Will instead of Caesar Flickerman.

We meet up with the rest of District 12 by the elevators; Evertt is there with Cherisa who is standing next to Nick, who is wearing a black suit, looking handsome as ever. He has blue accents on his suit on the sleeves and collar, and I can't help but wonder if Evertt and Cherisa made me wear a gray dress like Nick's eyes and have Nick wear a black suit with blue accents, like my eyes. It's a possibility.

Nick is again looking me up and down, like he was for the chariots, and I catch myself getting embarrassed, but I cover it up by stealing Nick's move by giving him a wink when I catch his eyes. He smiles at me. I'm pretty sure my heart skips a beat at that moment because his smile is so flawless, it's unreal. Dad is there too looking at me with smile.

The elevator opens and there is the stage, looking at it makes my heart speed up. The other Districts are on the stage getting their seats in the arc that we sit in until it's our turn to get interviewed. I see Jace and Keanan sitting towards the front, Jace who looks gorgeous with her blond hair curled down to her shoulders wearing a short puffy purple dress. Keanan is wearing a skinny purple tie that matches her dress. Jace sees me and waves showing her big white teeth. Nick and I wave back as we take our seats, at the end of course. I look back at Nick one more time and stare back towards Caesar.

The interviews are long and boring; it's hard to act like I am enjoying this. I have to laugh with the audience, and kept a grin on my face the whole time. I do pay attention when it is Jace's interview she does a good job making herself look like likeable; I think she is going for a sexy kind of pretty girl to get sponsors from her looks, which she can totally pull off. She talks about being back at District 4 and how she and Keanan have been friends for a long time.

Another interview I am paying attention to is Kyler, it seems he is going for humorous, the crowd laughs at his jokes, and collectively awe's when he smiles. That is the only time I laugh genuinely. Kyler talks about his older sister, who seems like a nice girl.

Quickly after Kyler Caesar Flickerman is calling my name and my heart skips a beat. I gasp quietly and I stand up, at first wobbly on my feet but I picture myself walking across the stage making every head turn, and that's what I do. I walk taking long strides with my legs making sure I put my weight equally on both sides of my body, Effie would be proud to say the least.

"Ah, Hailey, I've been waiting so long for this moment" he says with a big smile on his face, I don't know why anyone would want to see me that bad.

"Oh have you?" I say flashing him a big smile sitting down in the chair, making sure my dress is completely flattened underneath me.

"Oh yes, you're one of the popular tributes here in the Capitol," he says looking at me. "Say, I just saw your parents behind stage before this, they sure are looking great!" he says, I smile again.

"Yea, they do, don't they?" I say as I spot my parent in the city circle, front row. I wave at them, "Hey mom, dad." I say, the camera flashes to them waving back to me quickly then back to me and Caesar.

"So Hailey what's it like having the girl on fire as a mom eh?" I laugh a little; I swallow quickly looking at dad whose straight face helps me.

"Well, it's hard to get by with anything, that's for sure." I say laughing along with Caesar and the crowd. "But other than that, she is the best mom you can ever have." I saw blowing a kiss into the direction of mom to see her smiling unbelievably big. The crowd collectively awe's at my happiness towards my mother.

"Oh, and how about your father?" I look at dad again and think for a second, thinking of something to say.

"Dad can always make me feel better, no matter what is going on, and that's why he is the best dad in the world." I say looking at dad with a smile, more awe's from the crowd. We small talk a bit more about District 12 and my life there.

"So, Hailey I understand before Nick over there volunteered, it was your brother who got reaped?" I swallow hard, not wanting to talk about Will.

"Yes, his name is Will." I say with no smile on my face.

"What do you think you would be thinking right now if it was your brother sitting in Nick's place right now?" I wait a few seconds to gather my thoughts.

"I think I would be scared out of my mind, I can't thank Nick enough for what he did; it meant the world to me. " The crowd is silent. "Will means a lot to me and I think if he was here next to me instead I would do everything to protect him." I add last minute. The crowd awe's again.

"Now, that's Sibling love," Caesar says smiling, which reminds me I was supposed to be smiling and I smile back. "So about Nick, which we will get to later, he is the son of Gale Hawthorne, who was popular during the rebellion, along as your parents. The audience can't help but wondering if there is a relationship going on between you two." Hearing the question shocks me as much as hearing Jace said it days ago did. I blush immediately, wishing he wouldn't talk about Nick.

"Uh…um… No… Nick and I are just friends….that's all we are, I mean what he did for Will was great, and I love that he did that, but I only… like him as a friend." I sound like a complete idiot; every chance of being charming just flew out of the window. I hear a chuckling towards the arc, and I never wanted to punch Nick in his attractive face never more than now.

"Oh well Nick finds this funny, which makes me wonder about your answer?" Caesar says holding in a laugh himself. The crowd is laughing at my expense, at my embarrassment. "And you can't deny the shade of red on your cheeks!" Caesar says. Oh my, I wanted to cry.

"No! Were just friends!" I yell but I put a smile in my words so I at least sound somewhat likeable still.

"Oh come on, so if you had a chance, you wouldn't run over to him and kiss his attractive face?" my mouth is wide open I can't believe Caesar is saying this; my cheeks are going to start a fire if I don't calm down. Just then the buzzer rings and I couldn't be happier. I smile huge at Caesar, as if saying, HA.

"Well saved by the bell! Good luck Hailey Mellark! Next let's bring, Nicholas Hawthorne!" I get up walking away wanting to crawl up in a ball. Nick is looking at me when we pass each other, but I don't look back I look towards the ground and sit down.

"Nick! Nice to meet you!" Caesar says shaking Nick's hand as he sits down.

"Nice Meeting you, sir." Nick says charmingly. They small talk about moving from District 2 to 12 talking about Gale and his mother.

"So about Hailey." I hear Caesar say. I want to walk over to the buzzer and make it sound; I don't want them to talk about me. "Your thoughts on the relationship?" Nick smiles and chuckles lightly.

"Well, here's the thing, I wouldn't mind being with Hailey, I mean look at her, she's beautiful." My cheeks are red and the cameras on me so I can't cry so I try to pull a smile, but I can't, I am too embarrassed. "But I guess she's right, we're just friends. Nothing more." he says still having a smile on his face. At least he didn't proclaim his love for me like dad did to mom; I think I would have had a heart attack if that happened.

"Ah, yes I understand, some people are just better off friends. Just ask Jace and Keanan" Caesar says and the camera flashes to the two of them sitting next to each other. They talk about other stuff but I am just not paying attention because I am really embarrassed.

The interviews end and I put on a smile for Evertt, Nick, mom, dad, and Effie, because they think I did well, and I don't want them knowing I'm embarrassed for something so stupid. We go back up to our floor and eat.

I can't sleep, I can't imagine anyone can. Staring at the ceiling won't make me tired; it makes me think this time tomorrow I won't have a ceiling to look up at. I get up from the bed slowly; I'll just take a walk, that I'll make me tired. I open the door slowly and close it behind me guiding it until it closes so no one can hear.

"Can't sleep either?" The voices Startles me and I gasp. When I turn my head I see Nick, he is standing by his door, he snuck out too.

"I was going to go for a walk." I say to him he puts his hand out motion me to walk. He follows me, were not walking anywhere in particular, walking in silence until I say,

"Nick, I never really said thank you for what you did for Will personally…thanks." We stop walking because Nick leans against the wall nearby, putting his head against.

"It was nothing." he says. It sort of angers me to hear him say that, was he trying to impress me? He slides down to the floor, I sit next to him hugging my knees.

"No, it was very brave." I say keeping a solid tone.

"You think acting out of despair is brave?" he says looking at me instead of looking at the ground.

"Despair?" what is talking about?

"I did it because I know you didn't want to see your brother die yes, but I was shocked when you were called up there, I was frightened, I thought I was going to lose you, before we had a chance…a chance…" He doesn't finish, Nick is showing me a side never seen before. One that wasn't charming, that was scared. He is staring at me with his sparkling gray eyes. I could be wondering about what he was trying to say, but I could look away from his face, not a second.

Before I know it Nick is leaning in getting closer to my face. I don't have time to do move away, and I don't even if I even would if I did have time. I am too busy staring at his face and I'm mesmerized by the sparking tint of his eyes.

His face is only inches away until I realize what's happening, but I don't stop it because it's too enjoyable having Nick this close. His lips touch mine, his lips are soft and instantly I feel like my lips belong on his. But I can't do this! I open my eyes and take my lips away quickly. It was nothing more than two lip just touching, but I am disappointed in myself.

"No," I say keeping my eyes on the floor, so I don't get sucked in those eyes again. "In less than a week, one of us, if not both could be dead. I can't do this, sorry." I steal a quick glance of his pained face.

I get up quickly heading toward my room, not looking back, I feel my cheeks burning, and how did I let this happen?

"Hailey wait, I'm sorry." I can't believe I let him kiss me, as enjoyable as it was, I said I wouldn't do this. I turn the corner and walk into my room, I don't make sure my door is soundless; I have many other worries on my mind. Once I'm in my room I let myself let go. I slide down against the door hugging my legs and putting my head on my knees. Tears are forming in my eyes, and I let them fall, I cry for a long time but I don't sob, I don't want Nick to hear me, so he would know I have a weakness for him.

I hear shuffling feet down the hallway, Nick; he was walking slow, not picking his feet up. Then I hear a door from the left of my room.

"Too many things on your mind?" I hear, its dad. "You have no idea." Nick answers back with no emotion.

Dad gives a light chuckle. "Oddly enough I do, just lay down, clear your mind, think of something pleasant, you'll fall asleep eventually.

Nick I think clears his throat. "Thank Mr. Mellark."

"Please, call me Peeta." More tears are falling and now I am actually fighting to keep my sobs in. "Thanks Peeta." Nick says. I hear his door than dad's shortly after, which means he wasn't going to come into my room. I get up from the floor wiping away my tears. I go up to my bed pulling the blankets back so I can finally get to sleep. I think I did it though, I made myself tired.

Why am I so upset? Then I picture Nick's face that one brown strand that was covering one of his eyes as he sat next to me tonight. His face was filled with pain, who knew if it was caused by me, it probably was. I had no idea that Nick had real feelings for me; I thought our flirty friendship was nothing but my imagination.

I am still trying to find why I am upset? Is it because Nick took my first kiss? No, I couldn't be more happier Nick took my first kiss.

But then I know why I am go upset. This is the first time I am admitting this, even in my head, everyone else can see, Jace, mom, dad, and Caesar, I never wanted this feeling to come in but now I have to let it come in and overcome me.

I have feelings for Nicholas Hawthorne.


	18. Chapter 18

I wake up again too early and see Evertt standing over me shaking my shoulders. Today the Hunger Games start. Evertt helps me out of bed; it takes me a long time, considering that my mind was full of the memory of Nick kissing me, and the taste of his lips still on mine.

The prep team comes in after I get up from the bed. They mainly come to say goodbye, Evertt will stay with me until I got up to the arena. Avia comes up to me and hugs me.

"Oh, Hailey, good luck" she is tearing up and I'm not sure why, we barley new each other. It is sad though that people are saying goodbye to me. Right here is when it finally sinks in, I could die today, and Nick could die today. Thinking of Nick slows me down a bit.

The prep team leaves and Evertt put me in the arena uniform. It reminds me of the hunting jacket I always back home, so I like it and I feel comfortable in it. Evertt is putting my hair in a braid, when he is finished he pulls something from his pocket, it's the mockingjay pin. He clips in onto my jacket.

We walk to the elevator; it's just Evertt and I. I don't see mom dad, or even Nick, which I can't figure out if I am glad he isn't here or sad. We go in the elevator and down to a very deep floor that I have never been too.

We walk out and I immediately see mom and dad sitting on a bench. Evertt walks into a room nearby. Mom has tears in her eyes, the first I've seen since we got here. Mom flings herself into my arms. Her hug is warm, I never want to let go, because I know she never wants me to leave. She lets go though, letting dad hug me, he pats and rubs my back in the hug. I am going to miss this, I think to myself.

"I love you Hailey." He says so meaningfully he is looking around my eyes, like he wanted to know if I understood him. This could be the last hug and last, 'I love you' Mom looks at me "I love you." She says. Mom hugs me again, but I don't mind.

"Hailey just do me a favor; don't join the battle at the cornucopia, run. I don't care what you do after that, just clear out." I nod my head. It was clear mom didn't want me to die during the cornucopia, but she really wanted me to win. She wanted me to try my best; it makes me feel bad that I won't be trying my best.

I won't stay for the battle though; the six of us in our alliance had made a plan days ago during lunch one day. We grab a bag and we run. We run towards an abandoned water spot and wait, we would find each other eventually.

Mom and dad leave hand in hand after I tell them I love them too, trying to avoid getting tears in my eyes. I sit down on the bench mom and dad was sitting in, looking down a hallway. Then I see a figure walking down the hallway, its Nick. He comes closer down the hall and he is looking at me cautiously.

"Hailey…I'm so sorry for last night." He says to me. I was sorry too, but then I think of his soft lips on mine, and then I'm glad it happened.

"No, it's not that I didn't want to…" I don't want Nick to think I don't have any interest in him at all, because I do have feelings for him. "If we were in a different situation, I would… love to be with you." My heart is beating fast, because this is the first time I am saying my feelings about Nick for the first time out loud. Nick gives me one of his famous dimple smiles.

"You remember the plan?" He asks me, how I could forget something so important. I nod my head yes.

"Don't stay long at the cornucopia. Ok?" I tell Nick what my mom told me, because just like mom didn't want to me to die, I didn't want Nick to die. He nods at me looking me in the eye, then I go into his arms, I don't think he expected it. I stay there for a long time hugging him. My head is against his chest since I am shorter than him. I can't help but wonder if there was no Hunger Games, how he and I would stay in each other's arms forever. We could have grown old together, have our own children, like mom and dad did. We could live in District 12 and hunt together and laugh at the same stupid joke for hours. But there is no chance for that, and I don't want to waste time thinking about it. And honestly thinking about makes me want to cry.

Evertt comes back and I let go of Nick. He looks at me before walking away to his room where Cherisa is. I look at every step he takes, it hurts watching him walk away from me knowing this could possibly be the last time I see Nick alive. I wish I could turn my mind off sometimes, because the things I think our terrible.

Evertt pulls me in a room where there are lots of gray cabinets. There is a man standing over a sink wearing a white coat, he holds a syringe. I flinch when I see the long needle. "It's just your tracking device." I look at him with a confused face. "So we know where you are at all times." He tells me to stand still. The needle gives me a sharp stab of pain, but then it's over.

We leave going into another room that has the pad I will be launched off from. I look at it, picturing myself standing on it. I'm about to go into the arena, I realize. I've said goodbye to everyone, but I still feel like I can't go up. I wish Haymitch was here, I could get some wisdom from him. But then maybe it's better off he isn't, he would know my intentions for wanting to save Nick. He knows things like that. He probably knows now and is trying his best not to tell Will and let him think I will do everything to win. He knows I wouldn't listen, he would know I'm just as stubborn as my mom.

"Are you ready?" I hear Evertt behind me. There is nothing funny about what he says nor is the situation but I laugh nervously.

"Like I could be." I answer back. He smiles at me. He leads me to the pad I need to stand on. He pats my shoulders gently and whispers "Good Luck Hailey Mellark." I look at him until the pad springs upward and then I see darkness instead. At first I feel claustrophobic but in less than 10 seconds I am up in the arena surrounded by my fellow tributes.

The arena immediately reminds me of the 74th Hunger games. We are surrounded by trees, they're everywhere. The only difference I can spot is I can hear running water. That's good, water won't be hard to find. I look to my left and I see Nick. He is standing looking forward like the other tributes are, so I look towards the cornucopia like everyone else.

"Ladies and Gentlemen let the 76th Hunger Games begin!" the announcer bellows this and my heart drops. We have to stand on the platform for 60 seconds. It's the longest 60 seconds in my life, I catch myself looking at Nick again but this time he is looking back. He nods his head at me and gives me a wink. He looks away glancing at the cornucopia, looking at all the weapons.

The gong sounds and we all start running. I'm running faster than ever so I am towards the front, with the careers. As I am coming closer to it I notice a knife, there is a lot of knifes but this one is different. It's a nice medium length. It looks sharp and I can tell that it is a good knife. I want it. It was put there for me or Nick, we were the best at knives and this knife was for people who knew what they were doing.

I grab the first backpack I see and fling it over my shoulder, I have no clue what is in it, and I'm just hoping it is something useful. I'm close to the knife, so I think I can do it. There is an abundance of Cannon fires. The canons remind me of watching the 74th Hunger Games. I'm arm's length away from it. I extend my arm but when I turn my head I see the girl from district 2, Ella running towards me. With that I snap my hand back and run. I promised my mom I wouldn't die here, and I won't. I run towards the first opening I see in the trees. I don't run that far because I didn't see Nick run from the scene and I want to see what was going on.

I climb up on a tree, so high I am above all the others. I have a perfect view of the cornucopia, I try to not look at the dead tributes which there is a lot of, there's a lot of blood too. My eyes go straight to the cornucopia; there are less dead bodies over there. My eyes are moving fast with the panic of the possibility that Nick could be dead. But I see him right away he is running towards some weapons, he looks determined. He said he wouldn't stay for long. He said he wouldn't. I feel like yelling from my tree "Get out!" that wouldn't do much though.

He grabs something from the pile of weapons, but I'm too far away to see what it is. I am screaming in my head at him to run, it's only a matter of time before Andric, who is fighting the girl from District 7. Andric stabs the girl with his long sword; she falls to the ground followed by a canon. Andric of course notices Nick standing by the cornucopia. Nick was ready to run, but Andric was fast and grabs him. I am debating jumping from the tree and killing Andric, which is stupid, I am no match for Andric, especially without a weapon.

Nick tries to get away, but Andric strikes his sword at him. I am shaking, I am so nervous. Nick puts his hand up in front of his face. Andric's sword cuts through his hand. Nick lets out a yell and blood is forming from his hand quickly. Andric is about to stab Nick through the chest, I can tell. I have to look away, I can't see this. After I don't hear a canon I get curious and I look up. By some sort of miracle Nick got away from Andric. He is run towards the same opening I ran into. He is coming towards my tree. I am so full of relief.

I grab my backpack and hop from the tree right before Nick gets to me. He is clutching his hand and I see the blood gushing out of it. He sees me and his eyes lighten up immediately, it reminds me of how I felt when I saw him running from Andric. I have no time to fix his hand now, I hear yelling coming from behind us. I grab his good hand and pull him from behind me. I listen for the waves of water. I hear it but it is distant. But after a little more running, I hear it even closer, we can make it. I'm dodging trees, and I know I am running too fast for Nick but I can't stop running now.

We reach a small area with a small creek. I know if we keep going we would reach an ocean-like beach setting. But we couldn't risk going any father. I see a Tree log, and I order Nick to sit. He listens to me, but he won't stop touching his cut. I take my backpack off my shoulders to see what is in it. It's a first aid kit, which is good for right now, clothes and a pocket knife.

I go through my first aid kid, finding a bottle of rubbing alcohol. I pour some on a cloth so I can clean Nick's cut. It's weird that I know how to heal, the only time I would learn is when Grandma, mom's mother, would come down from her district to visit. She used to tell me that I had a good gift like her and Aunt Prim. I never really got to use it because the only time I thought about it is when she was there with me. I wonder if she is watching the games. Does she see me using healing skills?

"It might sting." I say softly to Nick. I know it will sting, but that's what people say when they feel bad. I dab the little piece of cloth on the cut. Nick breathes in sharply making a hissing noise come out of his mouth. I knew it would hurt him. I get more cloth from my first aid kit and wrap it around his hand. I tie it tightly around him.

Nick takes his backpack that he has and opens it. He takes something out of his bag and he extends his good hand.

"Here." He says smiling. I look down at his hand to see the Knife, the sharp one that I wanted. That's what he took, that's what caused him to get his hand cut. I look at him for a long time.

"No, you got it, it's yours." I push his hand away careful not to touch the knife's sharp edge.

"You wanted it, I got it for you." I thought telling him that I didn't want to have a relationship would make him flirt less but I was wrong. He got the knife for me because he saw me go towards it. He basically risked his life for me, already. Making sure he lived was going to be hard.

I laugh softy to cover up my shakiness. We still weren't sure of our alliances memebers whereabouts I just remembered. I take the knife because he was right, I did want it.

Nick goes through the rest of his backpack, taking out a first aid kit, a pocket knife, and bread. Now to think about it I was actually hungry. Nick was hungry too so we decided to share one little slice of bread, so we can save more for later. I take little bites making it last. I think about crying when eat this piece of bread but who knows if Nick could see. I think about crying because the bread reminds me of back home and dad's bread. It's like I am sitting at the dinner table surrounded by the people I love enjoying life.

After some time sitting on the log together I hear rustling from behind us and my first instinct is to stand up and turn. I hold up the knife Nick got me, I had it rested next to me on the log. But when something emerges from the bushes, it's nothing scary, its Kyler. His eyes are red, like he has been crying; he looks distraught, like he is lost in his own body.

We look at him and he is breathing heavy. He looks like he is about to cry or scream, I notice on his back is a bag of spears, maybe ten of them. I am about to ask him what's wrong when his voice cracks when he says.

"Clor-Clora is dead." Hearing his tangled words was probably more painful than it was to watch her die. My face goes into shock. "She saved my life." He says, I tell him to sit down on the log while he tells me what happened.

"I wanted the spears, that's how I got such a good score, I'm good at spears." He is staring into my eyes with an empty glare. "I ran towards them but the boy from District one, the fast one, he ran to me and pushed me to the ground. He was aiming his bow at me. Clora had the spears on her shoulder and she…she ran in front of me. She yelled 'Run!' but I stood there. The guy pieced her with his arrow." He stopped relaxing as I patted his shoulder. Nick pats his other shoulder too. "She landed in my arms. And the guy wanted his arrow back so I grabbed the spears she got for me and I ran." He is breathing heavily again.

"Shh… Kyler relax." I hug him. I can't tell if he wanted to, but I felt like he needed one, he was only a little boy.

We are going to stay here, so we set up places where to sleep, though I doubt Kyler will sleep at all he sets up in a tree and me and Nick, (Not on purpose) set up next to each other with our head rested on the log.

When it gets dark out and the day ends, the anthem plays over the arena for fallen tributes that will never make it back to their families in their districts. There were ten deaths. All the careers were still alive, and so were Jace and Keanan. I feel relieved when I don't see their faces up on the screen. When they show Clora's light-skinned face I have to fight not to cry. It's easy for me to deny that Clora's death was real, but to Kyler and Clora's family it was impossible. They saw it happen; they saw that arrow pierce her chest. Kyler's face of fear frightens me even more than I already was.

Seeing Kyler with a smile before this was so rare, now I know I lost a part of Kyler, because seeing a person die isn't something you can get over quickly, especially when you're twelve. If he ever does smile, it will be a long time before you see his youthful smile. He sits in his tree looking straight at the water. Like he was replaying the scene in his mind over and over again.

I feel like I need to take care of Kyler, for Clora, but I look down at the asleep boy next to me on the ground. He is sleeping on top of his clothed wounded hand. I have to stare at Nick's face for a while to remember Nick is my priority not Kyler.


	19. Chapter 19

**Sorry it took longer for me to update, my laptop's hard drive broke and I lost everything, I had the beginning of the chapter on there and after everything went away I didn't have any motivation. So now I am using my mom's laptop who doesn't have a good Word program, so there is probably a lot of errors, sorry****L but I hope you like anyway!**

My slumbers are filled with blurred visions of an arrow piercing Clora's chest. It feels like I'm watching a movie, the details are filled with what little words Kyler gave me the night before, and it's horrifying. I see it over and over again until I wake up.

When I do wake up everyone is still asleep. Well, not Kyler, he is laying in the tree with is eyes on the ground. His face is blank, I wonder how much sleep he got, if he got any at all. His light orange hair is hanging over his eyes. The sun is shining in his face, I can see the light reflecting off of his green eyes.

My throat is dry and soar, if I tried to talk I know I probably couldn't. I need water, I turn my head quietly and look at the creek. My legs hurt whether it be from running so much yesterday or from sleeping on the hard ground. I get up slowly making little noise so I don't disturb Nick. When I get up Kyler shoots his head up quickly, but he does not say anything. I walk to the creek, sitting on a rock that let me easily bend over.

I let my fingers run through the cool water to wake myself up first. The feeling of the water immediately reminds me of the place up in the woods that mom used to take me. It's like I can hear mom's voice in every splash of the water on my warm skin. When I am finished reminiscing about District 12, I bend down and cup my hands together. I take a few sips out of my hand until I can feel my throat easing up.

Then I hear a noise. It sounds like someone coughing. The sound stops right away, as realizing it could be heard. I could tell it was distant, but it was coming this way. I look back at Kyler's tree and see him looking at me also, he heard it. I stand up checking my pocket to see if the knife I got from Nick was still there. Kyler slowly gets out of the tree grabbing one spear.

I don't want to leave Nick behind, but I don't want anyone sneaking up on our camp either, so Kyler and I walk into woods where we heard the sound. I know whoever made that coughing noise will not slip up again and make another noise. We're standing in a small area in the woods, that isn't that far from our camp. But it was far enough for Kyler and I to want to go back.

I turn my head slightly to the ground near a tree root. I see a black boot, it is hanging out from behind the big tree in front of me. My hand reaches to my pocket immediately, ready to protect Kyler and myself. I hear some rustling then a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank goodness, Keanan, it's just Hailey and Kyler." it's the voice of Jace. She comes out from behind the tree and goes into my arms lightly. "Wait where's Nick?" she says looking at me with wide eyes. Suddenly Keanan appears too, looking at me expecting an answer.

"Nick is back at the place we set up at, he was asleep." Jace and Keanan look relieved again, but then Jace looks back up at Kyler and I.

"Keanan and I saw what happened to Clora, it was horrible." Jace shakes her head as if she is shaking the memory away. I immediately look at Kyler standing next to me, his face doesn't move, not even twitch. I look back at Jace telling Jace with my expression not to mention it anymore.

We walk back to the camp, Keanan tells us that they heard one cannon this morning, I probably slept through it., When we got back to the camp I expect Nick to be sitting in his spot on the log, or by the creek. But he isn't there. I look around the entire camp with panic filling my chest. Ideas that scare me come into my mind. Maybe the careers took him, maybe he went to the careers, he ditched us, because he never really cared. I think what would hurt me more than him dying.

Jace must sense the panic in my face because she pats me shoulder, "I'm sure he is near by" she gives me a smile, I hope he is near by more than anything. I just want to see that face looking down at me with happiness, concern, anything, I just want those gray eyes back in my view.

Jace and Keanan stay together, sitting on the rock I sat on a little bit earlier by the creek, Kyler is sitting there too but farther from them keeping his head down. Only maybe five minutes have passed, but it feels like a lifetime. I am sitting on the log Nick and I were sitting on before. It's warm like he is still sitting next to me. But when I look over my shoulder he is not there.

That's when I notice someone standing behind the log. I look down at just his feet, usually I would yell, jump, or grab my knife. But instead my head moves slowly up, seeing the face I've been begging to see.

"Nick." his name just rolls off my tongue. I look at Nick's hand to see him holding his backpack. Jace, Keanan, and Kyler turn their heads. "You scared me half to death, Where'd you go?" I look up at him, hoping he wouldn't think I was stupid or laugh at me. Fortunately he doesn't, he just looks back at me.

"Well waking up to you gone wasn't so great either." I know he is right, it was bad just to leave him here. "I went looking for food, you know berries and stuff." He smiles again motioning that he is over the whole me leaving him stranded thing. "I was hoping you weren't captured and killed in the night." he jokes around.

Jace, Keanan, and Kyler come up Jace and Keanan looked thrilled to see Nick up and alive. I am happy to see that his hand has healed a little bit. Jace and Keanan reveled that they had no food. The only backpack they got was filled with a tent. Nick gives them berries right away, that we make sure are not poisonous. I cut them a slice of bread from Nick's backpack. They eat their food quickly and then gulp the water down.

After a while of hanging around the camp and hunting small animals near by it's finally dark out. At night when the Anthem plays, they show only two deaths. The one I slept through and the one that we heard while we were hunting. One death was a girl from District 11, and the other one was surprisingly a Career. The girl from District 3. That's twelve dead. Twelve down, twelve to go. Five Careers, Five of us. And 2 other tributes that I don't remember their names or faces.

In the middle of the night I wake up from a terrible dream, that I don't quite remember, it was just horrible enough to make me want to stay up in this gloomy arena. When I walk out of the tent from Jace and Keanan's bag we set up, I see Kyler standing his short height. He is looking out at the water throwing rocks. I walk over slowly to him making sure I don't scare him when I say his name.

"Kyler." he turns his head slowly. He looks at me with the same blank expression that so often haunted his face. "Listen, I know what you saw was…it was horrible." he looks away throwing the rock he had in his hand into the water. He sends it flying but it skips over the creek, and makes ripples over the water. "But it wasn't your fault Clora died, it was her choice to save you." He looks back at me now.

"Yeah, but that's just it. Why did she _choose _to save me. I am going to die sooner or later." he swallows hard keeping his intense green eyes on me. "I mean we all are really, careers always win, right?" he looks at me, I cant believe he is saying these things, like he is just waiting for his death to come.

"That's not true." I say sitting on the big rock near by. "My parents weren't careers." I leave out the part about dad being a career, because it didn't help the situation, and he wasn't really a career in my eyes anyway.

"Whatever, your just in denial. Just because your last name is Marllark doesn't mean they'll bend the rules for you. You'll probably die, and Nick will die too. At least you can be with him wherever we go after we die, there will be no Hunger Games there."

The words he says hits me like bricks in the face. He doesn't say them with much hatred, but he sure isn't happy to say them either. I look back at the twelve year old, that's face looks as old as my father now, so dumbfounded. Maybe it surprises me so much because there is a little bit of truth behind his words. Maybe deep inside my head I was hoping the announcer would come and announce that there can be two winners.

Kyler looks at me and doesn't say anything, he just disappears behind me into the darkness that is the gloomy arena. I look up at the moon, wondering if it is the real moon or just a fake one the Gamemakers made. I feel sick to my stomach like I could throw up.

All this time I thought Kyler was a young ignorant little boy he was a intelligent man who knew what happened at the end of Hunger Games. People die, loves end up secrets, and things never turn out the way you wanted them.


	20. Chapter 20

I wake up with a wave of embarrassment washing over me. I feel like everything Kyler said was true. He called me out on what I was thinking and everyone saw, the whole of Panem. I pick my head up looking out the crack of the tent. I see Nick and Keanan sorting our food supply of fruits, berries, squirrel meat, and the little bit of bread we had left. I see the two of them laughing and joking around, which only proves Kyler's point that we aren't taking this seriously. Acting like this is a camping trip instead of playing the Hunger Games.

Speaking of Kyler, when I look out at of the tent, I don't see him. He isn't in the tree he so often lingered around. Jace is in the corner of the tent curled up, I don't want to disturb her, but in Kyler's tree I see a long object lying in the tree. I get up slowly from my position sliding through the opening of the tent. Keanan and Nick are wandering by the water so they don't notice me creeping to the tree.

As I get closer I see the object is a spear, its laying on its side up the tree branch. I turn my head to the little branch that used to hold the brown backpack that belonged to Kyler. But it is empty; there is no backpack, no bag of spears, just this one spear. I look at the lone spear more closely and I see deep carving right away, I turn the spear slightly and I see the message clearly, 'sorry.' It says

Kyler left, he is on his own. I don't understand why he is sorry, I'm the one that felt sorry, but then again I'm not too sure why I am sorry either, Now that I thing about it, I'm angered. Jace, Keanan, Nick, and I have been nothing but nice to him. Letting him join us, giving him food. But he paid us back with deserting us and telling me the reality I would have like to keep secret. He understood my mind better than me. I pick of the spear up, with so much anger built up in my fingertips, soon as I lift it close I throw the spear down leaving it alone. It makes a noise that makes the boys jump and turn my way, I walk close to them.

"Kyler left." I say trying to hold in my anger, which is hard because I rather be screaming and getting it all out of me. They look at me but back at each other.

"What? I thought he went hunting or something." The two of them look confused trying to figure out why he would leave us. Keanan says he will wake up Jace so we can discuss this together.

"I just don't understand why he would leave." Jace says while taking a bite of a pinkish berry she has in her hand_. I know why,_ I think to myself. He didn't want to be around us, who are creating false hope. But of course I don't say anything I keep my mouth shut and shrug. Everyone seems to believe than I am just as clueless as everyone else but the way Nick's eyes glance over me it makes me wonder if he knows I know more. We take turns looking at the single spear with the deeply carved words on its side.

"I wonder how he is even going to survive." Nick says when he is holding the spear in his left hand. "He didn't even take any food." He makes a good point, Kyler I know now, is an intelligent person, but he only took his spears and his backpack, but then I remember there's a lot of things about Kyler that is mystery.

We aren't really doing much for the rest of the day. We sit around a bit antsy seeing as though the games have been boring, and not many deaths. The Gamemakers are sure to throw in a twist soon. Jace won't stop talking about Kyler, and how we should try to find him. She feels like he will never survive. He won't, but he knows that, I want to tell her. But I don't of course because then I would have to tell her what he told me, and that's embarrassing.

Later on in the day Nick comes up to me holding his backpack,

"Hey, want to go hunting?" he is smiling me with his smile, and as much as I much rather stay here and avoid any trouble in this arena, I can't find it in me to say no.

Jace and Keanan are going to stay at the camp, which isn't that bad since they aren't the best at hunting. We walk over leaves and branches mostly in silence, but it's nice to be alone with just Nick again. I see him out of the corner of my eye fumbling to get his knife out of his pocket. Then I remember his hand.

"Your hand still hurt?" I say looking at his hand trying to unloop the blade of the knife from his pocket. He shakes his head no but goes back to unsuccessfully trying to get the knife out. I sigh because obviously his hand was hurting and he couldn't get his knife without hurting it more. I finally get tired of seeing him struggling and step in front of him and untangle it quickly and place it in his good hand. He laughs.

"Thanks Hailey." He says, I can't help but notice this is one of the very little times he has called me Hailey, usually I'm Mellark and he is Hawthorne. Not that I mind being called Mellark, it's just wonderful hearing him say my name. I smile back at him because his smile is wonderful and contagious.

"I'll go this way, you can go that way if you want." I say pointing to an area with big trees; I figured if we split up we would find more prey.

"Trying to get rid of me Hailey?" He teases me, smiling some more. He said my name again. _Oh shut up Hailey, focus on what's important, _I think in my head. There's no use drooling over the way he says Hailey, and no matter what context he says it in, the sides of his mouth go up.

"You caught me!" I say jokingly. He laughs softy and makes his way to the way I pointed. I head the opposite way, getting my knife out. I'm glad I said yes to go hunting, because doing this reminds me of back home. It reminds me of mom and shorty after I think of mom, I think of dad, and then shortly I think of Will. Maybe I can pretend like I am in the Woods outside of District 12.

I get to this big area where I can tell there are a lot small animals, so I have to make sure I don't startle them. I start walking slowly but as soon as I lift my feet I hear a loud noise that automatically makes my heart jump. It sounds like a growling of some sort. My heart is beating. A twist, the Gamemakers added a twist, and of course it is on me.

I hear it again. Then I hear branches breaking. I am breathing heavily and I am yelling in my head to run away. I need to get out of here. But before I get my bearings straight a huge figure emerges from behind a tree. It lets out another growl and I'm pretty sure I am going to scream.

It's a bear, a gigantic bear, it was brown and terrifying. The bear noticed me of course and it is looking at me with its big brown eyes. My first instinct is to run, because obviously a knife is no match for a big brown bear. I wish I would have brought the spear Kyler left behind. I turn quickly on my heels and I run. The bear growls and I hear it's footsteps after me.

Mom told me about a time she got chased by a bear, I used to laugh at the way she described her fright and how she was running so fast she couldn't feel her feet. Now I wished I remember how she got away, how she was able to defeat the bear, because right now I was running so fast I couldn't feel my feet, and my mind was drawing a blank.

Maybe I should yell for Nick. That seems like a good idea. I don't scream Nick's name but I do scream. I know it's a bad idea because the other Tributes will hear me. But maybe they'll come to find me, and the bear will turn to them. The bear is growling behind me, reminding me that he will get me soon. My legs are running so fast, that I almost think I could get away, but then my foot hooks on to a vine that is on the ground. I go flying head first to the ground. My ankle immediately fills with pain as it twists underneath the vine. The bear finally catches us and comes close to me. I am trying to take my foot out of the tangled mess, but it won't move at all and it's throbbing with pain

I close my eyes, ready to take whatever the bear was going to do to me. I picture my mom and dad watching this, wanting to do everything they can to stop it; mom is probably hiding behind dads back, while dad is looking away. Back home Will is probably freaking out while Haymitch is willing me to use my brain and figure a way out of this.

But when no pain comes I open my eyes to see a spear flying into the bear's heart. It turns over to its side dead. I look over the bushes to see someone. I get to see a glimpse of those green eyes before he runs away from the area. It was Kyler. He disappears into the trees.

"Hailey?" I hear behind me. The voice is frantic. I turn my head to Nick's worried face on me on the ground. His eyes bulge when he sees the big dead bear in front of me, but he runs to me with his knife in hand to cut my foot from the vine free. My ankle is still throbbing and I can't stand up. Nick helps me up and holds me slightly so I can limp back to the camp.

On the way back in between the sobbing of the pain, I tell Nick that the bear came out of nowhere and how Kyler helped me, how he left without saying anything. Walking back to the camp both of us seem warily, afraid another bear will jump out and eat us.

When we get to camp Jace and Keanan run to us immediately wanting to know what happened. We tell them everything, even about Kyler. They looked freaked out, Jace wraps my ankle in bandages, and it still hurt.

Its night and I let everyone go into the tent and go to sleep, while I sat out here, because I couldn't sleep. Of course I can't sleep again. I'm thinking of that bear, and Kyler's eyes before he ran away. I'm thinking of everyone I know watching this back home. I am sitting by the water, not even on the rock I used to sit on. I am hugging my legs and I am sitting with my feet so lightly of the water, it cools my toes and makes me feel refreshed.

I want nothing more than to go home. I feel like such a child thinking that but I can't imagine anyone is thinking anything but that. I feel warmness on my cheek. It's the first time I'm crying in the arena. I let a couple tears fall but no more than that. I don't like the idea of the whole nation seeing me cry.

Then in the sky I see something bright and shiny. As it gets closer to the ground I see it is silver and something is attached to it. It's a parachute. Something from my parents, the idea makes me cry thinking there hands touched it. I jump up immediately to catch it.

The parachute holds a small basket. I open it right away to see a small loaf of bread, big enough for one person. The bread is still warm. I take a nibble out of it and I notice the taste right away, its dad's bread. My tears are coming down again, I'm so filled with joy it's unbelievable. It's the idea that dad is watching me right now, and this is his way of helping me since he can't communicate with me.

I hold the bread tightly in my arms and whisper, "Thanks dad."


	21. Chapter 21

I go to sleep with no problem, after having a full stomach of the bread from dad. It was as reassuring as a hug. My ankle feels a lot better and I am able to walk on it easily. When I get back into the tent I slowly and quietly take my place between Nick and Jace. My head hits my backpack that I am using for a pillow and immediately doze off into a hazy view of a dream.

The dream starts off in a small room. It takes a while to get my mind to believe this is a dream. Everything just seems so real. Its metal walls remind me of the room in the Justice Building that I sat in after I got reaped. Now that I think of it, I think it is the room. I am sitting on a bench, but instead of sitting alone there is someone sitting next to me. I already know who it is before looking up to him. I can tell because his hand is in mine and I remember the feel of his soft hands. I lift my head towards him to see Nick's smiling face back at me. At times like these I'm so glad Nick doesn't know how many times I have seen his flawless face in my dreams.

I don't do anything but smile back because Nick has that effect on me. We don't say anything to each other, and I am starting to wonder if this is just a dream and not a nightmare like I so often have. But then the door swings open revealing mom. She is standing with her arms crossed. I don't think I ever seen her this angry. Her eyes are darting between me and Nick.

"Hailey." She says with a harsh tone. "What are you doing?" she points towards me and Nick's hands linked together. Nick drops my hand immediately. "You need to be thinking of yourself, not Nick." I look at where Nick was, but he is no longer there, he disappeared. I look back up at mom. I am speechless I don't know what to say.

"Protect yourself. Not Nick! Do you not want to come back to District 12?" she is yelling know raising her voice so high it scares me almost.

"No…mom, of course I want to come back! I just-"

"Then why are you giving your life to a guy you hardly know!" she interjects. How does she know what I was planning on doing to save Nick? Am I that transparent with my feelings?

Mom keeps yelling and saying how disappointed she is in me. She says she could have defeated the bear by herself if she was in my place. Hearing mom say these things is like a slap in the face. One of my biggest fears is being a disappointment to my parents. But I knew inside of me mom could never be disappointed in me. This was just a dream; I had to tell myself over and over again. Why could I just wake up!

And I get my wish. I wake up hearing a familiar voice. Its sounds panicked, the voice is struggling to talk.

"Please no." the voice manages to get out. I realize the voice is Jace. My eyes shoot open right away. I quietly sit up, making no noise. I look around the tent, Jace isn't here, and Nick and Keanan are fast asleep. Panic fills my chest. What do I do? I start shaking Nick's shoulder, when I don't get a reaction I go to Keanan; I shake his shoulders but nothing. I peek out of the tent, trying to be stealthy. What I see makes my heart jump. Two careers, the one Nick knew from District 2, Andric, and the boy from District 3. Andric is holding Jace up to a tree by her neck. She is squirming around and still trying to talk.

"Please… If you…are going to kill me… do it fast. Just don't kill them…" Her voice is skipping in and out from the lack of air she has.

"Shut up." Andric says angered. "Get me my knife Breck." He shouts to the boy from District 3. The boy scrambles to Andric's backpack and is shuffling around in it. I have to protect her. How? I have no clue. I turn over and zip open my backpack and grab my knife as quickly as I can.

I hear Andric getting impatient with the boy, Breck. "Where is my knife!" he yells at him. Since there backs are turned from me I get this insane Idea to crawl out of the tent and sneak over to them. I'm hiding behind a bush with my knife raised ready to attack.

"Mellark, Stand up." Andric makes me frightened of my own last name. I listen to him because I am scared for my own life now too. "Nice try, one more move and _crack_." he says motioning to Jace's neck. I gasp but I listen to him not taking a step. Jace puts her frantic eyes on me shaking her head. I don't care what she wants, I won't let her die.

"Drop your knife." He spits at me, still not taking his hand off of Jace's neck. I drop my knife right away not hesitating. I can't risk him snapping her neck. My knife lies in front of me and I never felt this vulnerable before. I have no weapon, no way to protect myself. I look back at the tent, in my head I am screaming at Keanan and Nick to wake up.

"Oh… I found your knife Andric." Breck says nervously handing him the big long knife. That's when we can hear from the tent things rustling around. Keanan and Nick are up, why couldn't they be stealthier?

"Put her down." Keanan almost yells. His eyes are bulging and he looks scared. He is holding the spear that Kyler left behind. Nick is right next to him holding his knife up. He is looking at me with panic.

"Shut your mouth." Andric looks back at Keanan, Jace is freaking out. She never wanted this to happen. I heard her pleading with Andric to not kill us. And now he has a chance to do so. Jace and Keanan are making eye contact. I see tears forming in her eyes one drops from her eyes and lands on Andric's hand. I don't think he notices though.

"Put your weapons down now!" He looks at the two of them. "Or I'll snap her neck right now!" I don't doubt that he won't and I know he can because his arms show so much muscle.

Jace is practically begging Keanan with her teary eyes to stop and let her die, but he won't give up. "You're bluffing!" he yells. Andric lets out a cruel cackle. He isn't bluffing.

"Oh yeah?" With a swift move of his wrist Jace falls to the floor. I find myself shrieking at the sight of her lifeless body. A cannon firing tells me this is real. Jace is gone. Keanan's face is crushed. He runs to her body.

Andric looks proud at what he did, like he should win an award for it. Tears are coming from Keanan's face and he is shaking her shoulders. We all know she is gone, but Keanan just can't accept it. Her blond hair is going across her face blocking her opened eyes. And I feel tears starting in my own eyes.

Andric is staring at me; I can't just stand here any longer. I pick up my knife that was still lying on the floor in front of me. I look Andric in the eye to let him know he is going to get what he deserves. He looks back at me.

"What are _you_ going to do Mellark?" I see Nick stepping closer to me from the corner of my eye. "You're nothing but a copy of your mother. Oh the famous Katniss Everdeen, you even look like her. You think because you're her daughter you get special treatment!" He looks at Nick now. "You even got your star-crossed lover right here." He laughs. "So let me ask you again, what are you going to do Hailey Mellark? You going to look in the history of your mom and pull out a trick she used? Huh? Stop trying to be your mother." He spits out at me.

I am shaking with anger. I want Andric to suffer. I want to rip him to shreds. I try to relax myself, but I just can't. The anger is spreading all over my body. When it reaches my legs I know what I want to do.

"I am not my mother!" I shriek my voice even scaring me. I clutch my knife in my hand, I feel the tug of Nicks hand on my arm but I shake it free and charge at Andric. He looks shocked like he didn't know I would do this. I jump on top of him aiming for his heart but something chucks me away and I miss, but I still get him in his stomach. I've fallen on the floor; it seems the thing that chucked me was Breck. He is coming toward me now and I am too stunned to move. I hear Andric howl from the ground across me.

Breck jumps next to me and I try to jump away from his knife he is jabbing at me. I get up a little bit but I get knocked down again when Breck's knife pierces the left side of my stomach. The last thing I see is Keanan shooting up from Jace's body with his spear and Nick racing to my side grabbing my head before it hits the floor. I slowly close my eyes. Before I go unconscious the last thing I hear is Nick yelling my name, which sounds so nice, and two cannons signaling Andric's and Brecks death.

There is no cannon for me, because I am still alive, my left side of my stomach is prickling in pain and is bleeding uncontrollably, but I am still alive.


	22. Chapter 22

**Two in one day? Wow I feel productive! Well anyway you may notice the scene with Hailey Nick is a lot like Katniss and Peeta, you'll see when you read it, when I wrote it I didn't mean it to be, it just ended up that way, and I really wanted it to happen like that. And yea… enjoy!**

My eyes open slowly and I see a different setting. I am flatly lying down on my back with my head against a backpack. I see the familiar view of a tent but when I turn my head I see a beach like setting. It's just getting a little dark; it must still be the same day. I squint my eyes and see two figures sitting side by side on the sand looking out to the water, Its Nick and Keanan, when I think of Keanan, Jace pops in into my head and I feel a pain in my heart. I picture her falling to the floor, and Keanan rushing to her side.

Then I remember Breck, and his knife going into my side. I feel a pain where I got pierced. I bring my hands to the side where It hurts. The pain is so bad I feel like my left side is going to fall off. When I bring my hands to it I feel a cloth and a big gaping hole. I bring my head up and I see my side covered in messy placed cloth and blood is drenching it, I need to change he cloth. But the sight of it makes me gasp in pain.

The noise I make makes Nick and Keanan turn around. Nick jumps to his feet right away running over to me. He sees the cloth drenched in my blood right away and is alarmed. I'm looking at him with panic in my eyes because it hits me right here, that I'll probably die from this. I'll get an infection; die from blood poisoning or anything else.

Nick is fumbling, cursing under his breath. I keep on breathing in sharply. Nick didn't know how to heal people; he doesn't have a clue, so I guess know is my chance to let him know I'm fine with dying.

"Nick." I feel the tears right away, I'm not sure if there from pain or if there from what I'm about to say. He looks up at me holding my blood soaked cloth up. His eyes are apologetic; he knows how much he is hurting me. But it's not his fault.

"Just stop." I put my hands weekly on his." He looks at me confused. "I'm going to die!" It comes out in a yell, but I didn't mean it to be, I just needed to get it out. "I'm going to die and there is nothing you can do about it." He shakes his head looking shocked.

"Hailey-" he tries to start.

"Nick, just stop I'm going to die and you need to win? Okay!" I say looking at him waiting for a reply.

"Hailey stop-" He just won't give up! I'm getting frustrated and I just want him to understand.

"Nick! No! Just promise me you'll win!" I look at him and he puts down the blood stained cloth. "Promise me-" I don't get to finish because Nick is pressing his lips against mine. I don't pull away like I did that night in the training center, I enjoy it. This kiss is so much more enjoyable then our first kiss. Its more compassionate and definitely more than just two lips touching.

I forget everything as his lips and I are sharing this wonderful experience, I forget that I'm in an arena full of people wanted to kill me, I forget the mess of blood on the left side of my abdomen. I also forget that the entire nation is watching this right now, including my parents. He pulls away and already my lips crave more of his. He looks at me waiting to see if I was going to say anything, but I don't. I let my head fall on the backpack I was resting on before and let Nick take care of me.

It hurts less because I am thinking of all the pleasure my lips just tasted. It was just so wonderful that I forget once again that my parents saw this whole thing, and dad was probably infuriated that I let Nick kiss me like that, but I've wanted that to happen since I laid eyes on him, and dad doesn't know that.

"Nick, your sponsors sent you something. " Its Keanan's voice, the first time I've heard him speak. His voice sounds so empty like he lost a part of him. He tosses a bottle at Nick and he catches it. I think it's for infection and for pain, because I feel relieved as soon as he puts it on.

Nick wraps me up in a new cloth and I feel immediately better. It's basically all dark now, and any moment the anthem will play. I notice Keanan sitting in the sand again looking up in the sky waiting for it to happen. I look up at Nick whose eyes are much more relaxed now. All I can think of is how I want another kiss.

Nick must know I want to be next to Keanan when the anthem plays and shoes Jace's picture because he picks me up and carries me to the beach, our new setting is very pretty. It's like we are actually on a beach. When Nick places me next to Keanan he doesn't stop looking at the sky. Nick who is next to me helps me sit up.

The anthem starts playing, Keanan swallows hard. We first see the face of Andric, the sight of his face reminds me of what he said, "Stop trying to be like your mother." It infuriates me. The girl from his district, Ella, also died too, I don't know how though. We see Breck from District 3. And then there's Jace. Her pretty little face, with her blond hair. Keanan buries his head in his knees. I put my head softly on his, letting him know I'm here.

There are nine tributes left. There are three Careers left, and three of us. Kyler is still out there along with two other floaters.

I can't help but think how much I love Nick. I know I shouldn't, it's totally the wrong time, but I can't help it. I look up at his face; he is looking out into the water with those grey eyes sparkling. I see the waves of the water reflecting in his eyes.

He looks back at me, I wonder if he is thinking about the kiss he gave me, because that's all I'm thinking of. He smiles and like the kiss it makes me feel like nothing's wrong. I smile back at him and rest my head on his shoulder.


	23. Chapter 23

The Night wind chills me; I'm not sure if it's our new location or if the Gamemakers are making it windy. My teeth are chattering and I wish nothing more just to fall asleep but the pain on my side is too sharp I can't. I can't get up or walk anywhere, and even if I could by some miracle get up and walk with no pain Nick wouldn't be too happy. He has been carrying me around everywhere I wanted to go just so I wouldn't start bleeding again.

I turn my head to look at Nick. He looks so peaceful and serene. My eyes wander down to his lips; once again the thought of the spontaneous kiss comes in my head. My cheeks get warm thinking about it. I wish he was awake with me right now, I know like that night on the train, I could fall asleep quickly in his arms.

It's so cold I can't stand it. I am shaking so hard I feel like my arms and legs are going to fall off. I close my eyes hoping I will soon drift off to sleep.

When I finally fall asleep I don't remember having a dream or a nightmare, so I actually feel rested. When I wake up I find a second jacket on top of me, I recognize the smell of the jacket right away, it's a warm smell. The jacket is Nicks, I must of have been shaking in my sleep. I pull the jacket up to my nose and embrace it like I am hugging Nick.

Looking around the tent I see that I am alone, I am frightened for a second but then I see Keanan sitting on the sand outside the tent, staring out into the water once again. He looks so alone, and I don't know if he wants to be, but I am going to sit next to him.

After a long time of just trying to stand up I finally somehow do it. As I get and limp my way over to Keanan the pain is growing, but I can't go back now. When I get to him I plop myself quickly down because now the pain is almost unbearable. His head shoots up soon as I hit the floor.

"I would've helped you." He says looking down at the cloth wrapped around my waist.

"Nah, I'm fine." I sat making a face showing how it actually really hurts. He actually gives a smile but his amber watery eyes still have a tint of sadness in them. You could see he wasn't alright in his face even though he gave a smile and pretended to be alright.

"Nick went hunting." He says looking back at the water. I nod my head even though he can't see because he is so captivated by the water, even though he has been staring at it for the past day. When he is looking at the water he looks like he getting hypnotized, like if I would talk to him he wouldn't hear, he is in a distant land.

"Keanan-" I start to say his name, but I'm not sure what to say…_I'm sorry your best friend died. How are you feeling since your best friend died?_ I know the answer to that question, he isn't feeling good. So I don't say anything. But then he continues for me.

"I keep thinking how much Jace would have loved this view." He doesn't look at me at all his eyes are just sparkling from the reflection of the waves of the water in front of us. "It reminds me a lot of back home, this place we used to go." He swallows and I can't tell if he is going to continue with his story, but I don't interrupt him.

"I remember the way she would smile when she was in the water; her smile was just so radiant. She was such a great swimmer, better than me, and I am good too." He smiles at the memory. "Of course she wasn't as good at fishing as I was. Whenever her parents sent her out to fish and she couldn't get any I would catch a bunch for her." I'm surprised that he is keeping a smile on his face.

"In return she would find me sea glass." He pulls up the sleeve of his jacket to reveal something on his wrist. "When I was getting her fish she used to make these bracelets for me." I look down at his wrist to see a thin bracelet; it consists of light and dark blues, light and dark greens. The bracelet is intertwined with the different colors and rope that looks like fishing nets.

"I miss her." When he says this, his weakness shows in his voice. His voice cracks and he takes his eyes off of the roaring waves. He looks me in the eye and I can not only see his pain, I can feel it. I don't know if Keanan was in love with Jace more than a friend, but I know he cared so much for this girl.

I lift my arms attempting to give him a hug but it hurts my side, I endure the pain though. I wrap my arms around Keanan. I hope talking about Jace made him feel better.

"Thank you for listening Hailey." Keanan says to me when I pull away from him. We sit together on the beach in silence remembering Jace, though I don't have many memories of her, I know Keanan does.

When Nick gets back from hunting and sees me on the beach Keanan tells him he helped me out here so Nick doesn't get all doctor on me and say I shouldn't be moving. Nick doesn't seem affected it by it. It seems like something else is on his mind.

"When I was hunting... I saw Kyler. "Nick sits down next to me, talking to me and Keanan. "We were staring at each other, not saying anything; I thought he was going to attack me to be honest. He didn't, well if he was he didn't get a chance. There was another tribute there; I don't know what district he was from…"

Nick tells us how the boy was running at them and Kyler and him were running away. The boy shot an arrow at Kyler. He fell to the ground and Nick went back and threw his knife at the guy. Kyler was dead before he got a chance to look at him. He got pierced in the heart, just like Clora.

I can't believe Kyler is dead. I try to picture his tiny body lying with an arrow in his heart, but I just can't, but that's a good thing, because that image would be on my brain forever.

Hours and hours pass, I eat some squirrel meat Nick brought back from hunting, I mostly sit in the tent when Nick carries me back. He sits with me while Keanan takes the spear Kyler left behind so long ago, and fishes. He said he would get the food so Nick wouldn't have to go into the woods and risked getting killed by any other tributes.

When night comes and the anthem will soon play, once again Nick carries me out to the beach. I look back at the tent but Keanan isn't coming, he is fast asleep, it probably tired him to be fishing that long. Nick and I sit alone just outside the tent looking up in the sky. His arms are around me and I feel so warm cuddled up in his arm.

The anthem starts, it goes straight to the District 8, Nick tells me that's the guy who he killed, after the guy killed Kyler. I don't remember his face at all, not even his interview. The next is Kyler, poor little Kyler, though me and him had our problems it still didn't make his death better.

That's it for the deaths, only six tributes left. I am proud of myself for actually making it this far even though I have a big gash in my side, I'm here.

Nick carries me into the tent placing me in my spot I feel like I am always in. I put my head down on the back pack, I need to sleep.

"Goodnight." Nick's voice is light and soft and makes my heart feel warm. I look up at him with my eyes widened. Nick walks over to me and kisses me softy on my forehead.

"Goodnight Hawthorne." I say. He smiles revealing his dimple.


	24. Chapter 24

For the next two days everything is sort of mellow, Keanan spaces out a lot when we talk to him, and I hear him talking in his sleep when I'm awake at night. His talking always has something to do with Jace. I don't think he knows I've heard him, but I know he remembers those dreams because when he wakes up he usually rushes down to the beach to sit there and stare and the water again.

My wound is getting better, it still hurts, but I am able to stand up, but Nick still won't let me walk anywhere without his assistance, not that I mind or anything. We are just all kind of antsy; there haven't been any deaths recently.

Me and Nick don't showcase our romance that much because I think he feels the same way about the cameras, but we do find each other staring at one another occasionally and I'll smile and Nick will do his famous wink and it feels just as good as being in his arms.

The three of us are all sitting outside of the tent; I'm sitting on a big rock that sits right by the water. It's much like the one at our old camp. My feet dangle from the rock, I'm swinging my legs slightly and my toes gently touch the water. Nick is sitting in the sand behind me with his knees up to his chest. Keanan is fishing of course. We don't need any more fish; I think Keanan just fishes because it keeps his mind off of Jace, Nick and I don't say anything about it to him though. Yesterday we got a parachute from Annie, Keanan's mentor. I think it was a gift to him from his sponsors to tell him how sorry everyone feels for him for Jace's death. It was a full meal, enough for me and Nick too.

I am staring at Keanan who so intensely is looking into the water waiting for a fish. It's interesting watching him fish. I wonder how he can have that much patience to just stand there with a spear and hope a fish will come near him eventually. He looks like a professional fisherman, with his pants rolled up to him knees.

"Do you know how to swim?" Keanan sees me looking at him. I nod my head

"Yes," I say simply. "My mom took me to this place out of District 12 when I was younger." Keanan nods and I look back down and my toes tracing circles in the water, if it wasn't for my injury I would be swimming now. I kind of miss it, the way the water just surrounds your body, it's a pretty good feeling.

I look back behind me to see Nick still sitting quietly but he has his eyes on me. Once again I smile at him and he smiles back. I turn my head again before I am tempted to run over to him and kiss him.

So that's how the past days have been, uneventful.

Later that night Keanan is sleeping, he sleeps so much better after he tires himself from fishing all day long, though I'm sure visions of Jace still haunt his mind. I'm sitting in the tent just playing with the laces on my shoe when Nick comes in.

"Hey, come sit with me." He pulls his hand out and I smile

"I stand up myself you know." I say as I realize it still hurts, and I'll probably make a fool out of myself and start bleeding again. I stand up and Nick keeps asking me if I'm ok. I say I'm fine which is true, because surprisingly it doesn't hurt much.

When we get a perfect spot in the sand we sit down and just sit, we don't talk or even look at each other. My head is leaning on Nick though. He is playing with little pebbles in the sand. My mind is running through everything, I'm not sure why every thought is coming into my head now when it could have been lingering over my brain all day long.

"What's on your mind? It looks like you're thinking too much." He says softly. Of course he is right. I am thinking too much. I 'm thinking of Jace and Keanan, I'm thinking of mom and dad, I'm thinking about Haymitch and Will. But the though is taking over my mind completely is Nick. How much I want to kiss him, and how we could never be together and how I am kidding myself.

"Too much." I don't take my eyes off the ground because if I look into his mesmerizing eyes I might collapse and tell him everything my mind is holding and I know the cameras are on us right now.

"You know, you're very hard to read Hailey." I'm not sure what he means by this, "I mean I know what's on your mind, that's obvious, but I just can't figure out…" I look up at him to see him staring at my face. "I just can't figure out what you're thinking about me." I smile at him because it's always nice to see a side of Nick that isn't too confident.

"What do you mean?" I ask him, he smiles back at me.

"Basically what I'm saying is would you mind if I kissed you right now." I can't help but laugh at him as he is staring at me with a big confident smile. _Of course I wouldn't mind,_ _I've been practically begging you to kiss me again. _ "So… is that a no?"

Then for the first time I reach up and press my lips to Nick's. It's the first time I kissed him first, he was the one left surprised this time. When I pull away his eyes open quickly and the gray color is sparking, he looks so shocked and happy.

"So what you said in the training center, you're taking it back?" I can't tell if he is trying to be his confident self or if he really wants to know. I think about what I said, _'in less than a week both of us could be dead, I can't do this, sorry.'_

"Well I still think it's completely true." I say getting serious for a moment, "But honestly I don't really care anymore." He smiles immediately at my answer and he is pulling me into a kiss that is so wonderful I feel like I'm flying. I am leaning on his chest and he feels so warm. I never want to let go.

After we cuddle for a long time, we decide to go back to the tent and go to sleep. Since the cameras probably have a hard time getting a view of us in the tent Nick and I decide to continue cuddling and lay down next to each other.

It's actually quite warm tonight so I take off my hunting jacket and rest it next to me on the floor.

I think it is something about being in Nick's arms that make me have this wonderful dream. It starts off so real, I am walking out of my room back in District 12. I go down stairs and see mom and dad, who look so happy just sitting together on the couch.

I walk out of the house and I am walking to the bakery. When I get there I look in the windows of the bakery to see Will happily singing to a song sweeping the floor. I don't walk in the bakery; instead I walk to the house across from it, Nick's house. I see Gale who also looks happy, but Nick rushes out of the house to me and pulls me in his arms for a warm hug. Then we start walking towards the woods, were going hunting together. This is a dream, not a nightmare. I can't remember the last time I had a dream that didn't wake me up screaming or crying. There is nothing wrong with this dream and I am enjoying it.

The dream is cut short with yelling.

"Hailey! Hailey!" I feel someone shaking my shoulders. "Hailey wake up!" it's Nick's voice.

My eyes shoot open and I see Keanan franticly grabbing our weapons and Nick looking into my eyes. "The careers and the District 5 tribute are attacking our camp!" Nick is yelling and my eyes are still hazy from just waking up, but then an arrow shoots through the tent and just missing my hand, goes right through my backpack and I wake up right away. I gasp and stand up immediately.

Nick, Keanan, and I run out of the tent and dash for the forest with just our weapons in our hands.


	25. Chapter 25

I hear footsteps and yelling behind us. We are all running so fast and I don't think we even know where we are going. I turn my head to make sure Nick and Keanan are still behind me, they are. I hear a loud noise that makes me jump. Thunder, I look up at the sky where this thunder was coming from. A water droplet falls in my eyes; soon one water droplet turns into twenty. The massive amount of rain is washing over my face; I don't stop running though I just keep my head forward.

I honestly hate the Gamemakers right now; they just want to see us fumbling around in this thunder storm for entertainment. Mud is starting to form on the ground, making it extremely hard to run fast. We slap our feet in the puddles which splashes up mud onto our clothes making us completely covered in patches of mud. There's more thunder and I could have sworn I could have seen lightning hitting a tree to the right of me.

I am breathing heavily but I can't hear it because of the splash of mud, the rain hitting the ground and the thunder. I have no idea how far in front of District 1 and the boy from District 5 we are, but we don't slow down. My side where I was injured is starting to throb, it might be bleeding again. I hear a loud noise that sounds like an explosion, it was probably just a lightning bolt, I tell myself. Shortly after that is a cracking noise. I keep my head forward so I don't slow down, but I am forced to turn my head when I hear Keanan's bloodcurdling yell. It's so full of pain I snap my head back and immediately stop short.

When I turn my head, the sight I see makes my heart sink. An enormous wide tree lies on the ground right on top of Keanan, it's on his chest. His eyes are franticly running back and forth as he tries to pull himself out of it. The rain is splashing on his face and his hair is dripping water droplets on his nose. There's no luck whatsoever and I am about to run to him when I see District 1 coming. I can't let Keanan die like I let Jace died. I need to save him, even if I die for it. I was going to die eventually right? But then something creeps into my mind I don't have my hunting jacket on, the hunting jacket which had mom's mockingjay pin attached to it. I can't die without it on; it has to get back to my mother.

Thinking is making me run out of time so I just get ready to run to Keanan who sees me ready to help him. His eyes are watery like the day on the beach when we were talking about Jace.

"NO! HAILEY RUN." He is yelling over the rain as he whips his head to see the running Careers heading towards us. "GO! RUN!" Why does everyone want to give their lives for me! I can't let Keanan die! He is suffocating from that tree. But just then with a swift movement someone is pulling on my waist,_ Nick_.

My side feels numb almost. I can't run anymore, but I know I have to, for Nick. He is running next to me holding onto my hand making sure I don't fall behind. Nick shoves something into my hand; I look down quickly to see the spear that Keanan was holding before the tree fell on him. When I glance at it I remember Keanan sitting next to me on the beach talking about Jace, or fishing with this spear. Then I hear a cannon fire in the distance, it must be for Keanan, a single tear falls from my eyes and mixes in with the rain drops.

Then out of nowhere a blurry vision in front of my eyes pushes me and Nick down. The boy from District 5 is standing over us, he is a fast runner. Nick and I are rolled into a big puddle of mud. But just then I remember the spear Nick put in my hand. It turns out throwing spears in the training center helped me because I threw the spear and to my luck it landed right in his neck. A cannon fires as he hits the ground. Nick stands up quickly and pulls me up with him.

We have no clue where District 1 is and it is freaking me out. I feel very jumpy at every sound surrounding us. I start limping over to Nick, because it hurts too much to walk normally with the gash in my side growing bigger by the second. Because I can't walk me and Nick walk a little slower, but we are still going faster than normal and we are still aware of our surroundings.

We don't get that far when we hear branches cracking. Nick and I stop short in our tracks immediately twisting our heads in every direction to find the source of the noise.

"We seriously need to take care of these two." I hear from the right of me and I turn my head to see the boy from District 1. Behind him is the lanky girl from his district. Nick and I don't have much time to react to them because the lanky girl charges at me and pulls me to the ground. Nick yells something, I can't hear because my head is slammed into a puddle of mud on the ground.

"Shut up pretty boy." The boy says back hostilely, the boy pulls out his knife and so Nick. I flinch at every lunge the boy makes towards Nick. The girl doesn't hurt me she just holds me down, I think it's because she really doesn't know how to do anything, she has enough strength to make me not fidget but she stands there awkwardly, probably because she never really learned to fight people before.

Nick and the boy are going back and forth; I never realized how good Nick was at fighting. He dodges every one of his lunges swiftly and throws back lunges just as swift. Nick takes the knife he has in his right hand and jabs it at the boy's leg, it lands in his upper leg and he pulls it out quickly, but the boy doesn't seem fazed at all, just extremely angry. He plunges towards Nick, but he lifts his hand and swipes at the boy's face. He drops to the ground, He is knocked out and the rain is running down his face.

Nick instantly runs over to the girl holding me to the ground and grasps her; she tries to get away, making it hard for him to strike her with his knife. So I reach into my pocket and take out my knife and quickly jab her with it in her chest. She drops from Nick's grasp and falls into the mud she had me in before. I hear a cannon fire in the distance and then from the corner of my eye I see the boy who Nick was fighting before get up. Nick and I are ready to fight but the boy just grabs his leg which is spewing blood, he runs off into the forest, and I know he won't make it that long out there.

I let everything sink in; Keanan's death takes a while to go through my brain so I process it. I also realize that Nick and I are the last two people besides the District 1 tribute, who is badly wounded, I never wanted this to happen, I was supposed to be dead already.

When the information gets through my head I throw myself into Nick's arms. We stand like that for a while just in each other's arms, and then we realize we have to go, let the hovercrafts come for the dead body of the girl.

My side is still hurting from running all this way, I'm not sure if it is bleeding or not but I don't bother to check. Nick and I walk hand in hand back to our camp. We walk slowly since I am limping and we are tired from all that running anyway. We don't talk but I know we're thinking the same thing. What are we going to do if we're the last two?

When we reach the camp my heart immediately hurts when I think of Keanan and how he should be in the water right now with his pants rolled up holding the spear. It stopped raining and like magic the sun was shining. When we step out of the trees we ran into this morning, I instantly run into the tent remembering when I thought I was going to die. I pick up my hunting jacket and take the mockingjay pin off it and put it on my shirt. I will not risk dying without it.

I turn my head around the tent to see Keanan's corner with his backpack and hunting jacket. I picture his amber eyes staring at me begging for me to run away from him. I could have saved him, I know I could have. Now he is dead, gone. For the first time in a while I think about Kyler's words he said to me one night. '_At least you can be with him wherever we go after we die; there will be no Hunger Games there.' _I wonder if what Kyler said is true, if Jace and Keanan are together, but I stop because it hurts too much.

Nick and I sit outside since the sun is out, we dry up from our soaking wet clothes fairly quick. It turns out my gash had starting bleeding again, not that bad, but it wasn't too good either. Nick puts on some of the stuff we got sent down from my parents the day I got cut. It helps a lot and he wraps a cloth tightly around my waist that makes it feel secure.

We don't talk much for the rest of the day and when the anthem plays to show us the deaths for the day I can't help but let out a few tears. I really felt like Keanan confided in me these past few days, and just like that he is gone forever. We go back into the tent and Nick says he is going to stay awake to keep watch just in case, and I wish I could stay awake with him, but my eyelids won't even stay open to say 'alright.' He kisses me softy on the lips and I drift away into sleep.

I get sleep but even the sleep doesn't stop me from thinking about the inevitable. Nick or I is going to have to die, and it is going to be soon. I just wish I had enough courage to rip open my gash right now and let all my blood pour out and I could die, so Nick can kill the boy from District 1 and can win. But like I said I don't have enough courage to die for someone on my own terms like Kyler, Jace, and Keanan. It would have to be a surprise.


	26. Chapter 26

I wake up expecting to see Nick next me asleep but instead he is wide awake. Well maybe not wide awake. When Nick told me last night he was going to stay up to keep watch, I thought he was telling me that to make me feel safe and as soon as I fell asleep he was going to sleep too. But as I look at his face I can notice he didn't even get a blink of sleep. His eyes look worn out and he has massive bags under his eyes. He is looking at me as I prop myself up.

"Why didn't you get any sleep?" I say as soon my mind is fully awake. He looks back at me, and if he had gotten any sleep I'm sure he would have smiled.

"I told you I would stay up." Nick says simply.

"Well sleep now." I don't want Nick to be tired for the last few moments we could be spending together. He resists for a couple minutes but I can see his eyes slowly dropping. Eventually he rests his head on a backpack and he is asleep. For a few minutes I stay sitting next to him, not just because my side is hurting, but because I like the warmth I feel coming off of his body.

Eventually I get up and slowly make my way towards the spot where Keanan and I sat. I sit down and just let the wind blow the lose strands of my hair over my face. The wind feels great on my face; the cold air relaxes me a bit. I'm trying not to think of Keanan, but it's just so hard. When I look out into the water I see nothing but Keanan's face.

I go back into the tent before Nick wakes up because I don't want him to walk up to an empty tent and think something happened to me. I crawl into the tent carefully not disturb Nick in his slumber. I slip into my spot next to him quickly. I sit there just staring into the wall of the tent, just thinking of what I can do while Nick is asleep. Inside my brain I start to reply memories that happened to me years before this, or even days before I even knew Nick existed.

Most of my memories consist Will, because he was always with me in my childhood, he was my really only friend. The first one that comes into my mind is actually probably the earliest memory I can fully remember. Him and I playing in the meadow by our house, I was 6 and Will was 4, we used to always play in the meadow. I remember dad used to chase us and I would dance around while Will would scream with joy. The memory automatically makes me smile.

Then of course I had the memories of the creek with Will and mom. And whenever I thought of the place I thought of the song I used to know as my lullaby, but after watching mom in the 74th Hunger Games, I know it as Rue's lullaby. I remember mom's sweet voice and I am wishing nothing more than to hear it right now or even Will's. I was never a good singer, but I think I was decent enough. I don't know what makes me but all of a sudden my voice starts singing.

_Deep in the meadow, under the willow  
>A bed of grass, a soft green pillow<br>Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes  
>And when again they open, the sun will rise.<em>

_Here it's safe, here it's warm  
>Here the daisies guard you from every harm<br>Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true  
>Here is the place where I love you.<em>

I don't belt out the song I just quietly whisper it, I'm not sure if the camera can hear, but I don't care. When I'm finished I look back at Nick who is still fast asleep, the corners of his mouth are twitching and I wonder if he heard me in his sleep.

After a little more of just thinking inside my head I hear from next to me.

"Hailey…" Nick mumbles. Hearing him talk makes me jump, and I look at him quickly. I can't help but smile with a huge grin to see him asleep. My cheeks get warm a little; I never thought I would be in Nick's dream. His lips twitch up in a smile and I am left thinking about what he could be thinking of.

I sit down listing things I will miss if I never go back to District 12, mom, dad, Will, Haymitch… then when I hear another muffled "Hailey…" coming from Nick next to me I add him to my list.

**Hello! Sorry this chapter is not as action packed as the last chapter was, and it's like really short… but I figured the book needed a chapter to cool down before some more big stuff! So I hope you enjoy! I'll try to get a chapter up tomorrow. **


	27. Chapter 27

When Nick wakes up I don't mention anything about how he mumbled my name and how he smiled in his sleep, because I'm just as guilty. We are sitting together on a rock outside of tent eating the extra fish that Keanan caught for us a while ago. Nick isn't being his talkative self and he just looks at me a couple times. We are carrying our knives in our pockets, because we are a bit paranoid that the boy from District 1 is going to pop out of the woods. When we are finished eating we sit there awkwardly and before Nick says it I know what he is going to say.

"We have to figure this out. What do we do if we're the last two?" he is looking at me with such a sudden serious face. Even though we should talk about this, I still don't want to. I don't say anything and avoid his eyes staring at the floor picking at the dirt on the bottom of my shoes. "Hailey. Look at me." I listen to him looking up to him immediately.

"Nick, lets figure it out when we get there." I say that even though, we'll be there pretty soon. He sighs to show he attempted to get through my stubborn mind and is surrendering. "I'm going to get a drink of water." He nods his head. I place the knife on the rock so it wouldn't weigh me down as I walked down the beach. I walk across the sand sensing Nick's eyes on me, but I don't turn my head.

When I get down to the beach I bend down slightly and cup my hands to gather the water in them. Before I can even touch my palm to my mouth I am hearing a sound that I've been hearing too much, a cannon.

Out of instinct my heart jumps and I whip my head towards Nick. I find him sitting in the same spot he was in before looking at me with the same confusion as me. I don't have time to cry or run back to Nick because the next second the announcer's voice is surrounding us in the arena.

"Congratulations final two of the 76th Hunger Games! You've made it this far, and now we need a victor! So concluding this, if we do not have a victor by sun down there will be consequences." The voice fades and I am left feeingl dumfounded. The sky is already getting dim and I start to panic. I catch a glimpse of Nick's eyes as they dart for the rock next to him. It feels like this is going in slow motion in front of my eye as he lifts his hand.

I know what his plan is as soon as he lifts his hand. He grabs the knife that I left behind on the rock I was sitting on before. He turns it into his stomach.

"Nick!" I scream. But he doesn't put his hand down. I start running back to the rock but by the time I get there he already shoved the knife in his stomach. My heart aches as I see the blood bleeding through his shirt. He falls off the rock but I get to him in just enough time to catch his head. He is groaning in pain and I feel tears forming in my eyes.

"No, Nick. Don't die on me!" I yell at him. I lay him down on the two rocks as if it was a bed and I run inside the tent. My arms are flinging backpacks and jackets around so I can find something to help Nick. I find a first aid kit and I run back out to him. When I see him with the knife in his stomach I make a small noise of pain that comes from the pit of my stomach. I feel like I am going to throw up.

I run to him and say, "This is going to hurt, ok?" He doesn't answer, probably because it hurts too much already. I breathe in deeply and put my hands on the knife. I don't hesitate I just pull it out; when I do Nick makes a yelling kind of noise that makes me cringe. "Shh..." I say while trying to control my tears. Nothing else matters right now but saving Nick. I won't let him die.

I manage to relax a bit and pull out a bottle of rubbing alcohol from the first aid kit. But all that is lost when I lift up his shirt. There is a big hole, probably bigger than the hole than the one I have in my side. Tears start rushing down my face and I start slurring my words. "Mom…Dad…" I say through my sobs, I know they wouldn't send me anything, but I had no one else to turn to. I pour the rubbing alcohol on the hole and he breathes in sharply. I start dabbing it quickly, fumbling my hands. "Don't worry… Nick… I'll fix it." I had no idea if I could fix this.

"Hailey…" I look at his face; it looks like it took a lot of energy just to say that. "Let…me…die." He opens his eyes fully and is looking at me with so much intensity. Letting him die is too much to ask. A tear rolls off my eyes and falls on to his cheek. I look down at the bloody mess and see the cloth I put on top of his stomach wet with blood.

"Nick." I say, I don't know what else to say I just collapse in a hug around his neck. I run my hand through his brown hair. I take my head out of the crook of his neck and look into his gray eyes. I've shared many things with Nick; dreams, nightmares, glances, kisses, but I never shared three words that I wanted him to know.

"Nick. I love you." I say this with so much pain in my voice but I don't regret saying it as I see Nick smirking. It's a little grin but I can still see his dimple. Quickly I reach my head towards him and kiss him softly. When I pull away Nick's eyes are slowly drifting.

"I love you too." He says this with the little grin that still shows his dimple. Shortly after saying those words his eyes close and I hear the sound I wish I wouldn't have heard, Nick's Cannon. He is dead. He is gone. Never again will I feel his big muscular arms around me. I will never get the feeling in my stomach when his lips press against mine. I feel so alone right now. I'm angered, I don't know at whom, maybe myself for leaving the stupid knife on the rock when I got up. I'm just so angry that I scream.

I shriek so loud if anyone where on the other side of the arena they could hear me, but there is no one, I am alone. "Congratulations Hailey Mellark on winning the 76th Hunger Games." After I hear this I start screaming more. I don't know what screaming will do but I honestly have no control over it anymore. I still won't let go of Nick's body. There isn't enough energy in me. From up above I hear rustling and I feel a massive wave of air swooping over my face. My hair starts to whip around my face and Nick's hair starts whipping his lifeless face. I look up to see a big gray hovercraft.

When the hovercraft lands right in the mess off the trees right by the tent, people who look like peacekeepers immediately come running towards me and Nick's body. I hold on to Nick's body tightly but the peacekeepers peel me off of him pushing me on the ground behind them. They pick him up.

"What are you doing with him? No! Don't take him!" I don't know why I don't want the peacekeepers to take Nick away, maybe it's because I am afraid I might forget his beautiful face if I never see him again. The peacekeepers don't listen to me or even acknowledge me. I am extremely angered by this. I stand up grabbing the pant leg of one of the peacekeepers, screaming still.

Just then someone runs off the hovercraft, I catch a quick glimpse of him; he is tall and very skinny. The look on his face instantly scares me, and I feel like I already know who he is. "Cut the cameras." He bellows, it shivers my spine. This is the President, the grandson of President Snow, I don't know his name. "Peeta. Katniss. Get out here."

The peacekeeper is trying to shake me off. And I don't let go until someone picks me up from behind. I recognize the warm hands instantly, its dad. This is the only time when I am in dad's arms in which I don't feel safe. I don't feel instantly better like I used to, all I want is Nick. I hear dad's voice in my ear as I watch the peacekeepers walk away into the hovercraft with Nick's dead body. "Hailey…shh..." but I don't shush. I keep yelling and crying and fumbling my arms in the grasp of my dad. I feel so pathetic, like a baby.

Dad is carrying me to the hovercraft and when we get there the first person I see is mom. The sight of her face should make me happy but I see those gray eyes and I want to scream. So I sob out loud, because I already lost my dignity on the beach. Beside mom walks the creepy president and hands something to her. She looks down at it and looks back the president with wide eyes.

"This could knock her out for days." Mom says fast. The president points his finger at me,

"At the rate we're going, we need that." He says avoiding my eyes. Mom looks up to dad and he answers back quickly.

"No way, I am not giving that to her." Dad seems certain in whatever there arguing about but when mom puts her hand lightly on dad's arm and says, "Peeta, he is right." Dad grabs the thing out of moms hands and sticks it in too my arm. It was an injection.

I scream not at the pain from the injection but from the awful pain in my heart. It feels half empty just picturing Nick's body lying in the arms of the peacekeepers. I just want him to be alive holding me and telling me it's going to be alright. I wish I had a stronger heart like my mother who lost so many friends; I guess I'm more like my dad that way.

My eyes slowly close and I start to dose off. Dad is carrying me somewhere. The slow rocking of dad's steps pushes me to slumber faster than I was already.

My eyes are closed, all I see is red, red like the blood that came out of Nick's wound. Then just in a second I feel nothing, nothing except the lingering last kiss of Nick's on my lips.


	28. Chapter 28

I wake up and my head feels like it weighs a ton. My throat feels dry and I immediately wonder how long I have been out. I pick up my body to see I am lying on a stiff bed. I turn my head, looking around the small room. The room is cold and mostly empty. I wonder how long I've been asleep on this stiff bed. It takes a while for me to realize what I'm doing in this room and why my heart hurts so much.

I look down and I see I am wearing a new set of clothing, they're clean; I haven't worn clean clothes in so long. I stand up and walk towards a floor length mirror that was standing up in the room. The clothes that I am wearing are just a simple gray button down shirt and long black pants. The first thing I notice is how there is no cloth around my body. I lift up my shirt instantly and see nothing but a little scar. They fixed me, they closed up the gaping hole and all that is left is a tiny red line. I place my hand over the red line, I expect it to hurt, but it doesn't. It feels like nothing ever happened to me, it's amazing what the capitol can do.

The door cracks open and my heart jumps I turn my head quickly and instead of a tribute coming after me like I expect, it's my mother. She looks surprised to see me up from the bed, but she also looks relieved.

"Hailey, you're up." I don't say anything back to her I just glance at her. Mom comes into the room closing the door. "President Crowe said you should be waking up soon…" President Crowe, the man that walked off the hovercraft I guess. She just stands close to me searching around my eyes for a motion. "If you were wondering, it's been three days since…you're last day in the arena." I was wondering, but I have no energy to ask her about it. Three days, I've been out for three days.

"How are you Hailey?" The question angers me. _How am I? _What a stupid question, obviously I am not okay. Mom looks at me like she honestly thought I would answer back. But I don't I just look away and stare at myself in the mirror. Mom sits down on the bed behind me and sighs.

"Listen Hailey, you may not realize, but I know what you're going through right now. So if you want to talk about it, you know you can talk to me." This makes me even angrier. Maybe mom has seen many people die, and maybe people have died at her hand, but she doesn't know the first thing I'm going through. Mom got out of the games with the person she loved, and mine… mine is dead.

I am still not looking at mom and I wish she would let me be alone, I don't want to talk about anything let alone what I'm feeling. I think mom understands I won't say anything because she stands up from the bed and heads towards the door.

"We are about to have lunch, do you want to come?" I don't really have an appetite so I shake my head no and look at mom. Her eyes are full of worry and I don't mean to make her worried, but it's just how I feel right now. She doesn't take my head shake as a no.

"Hailey, you've been out for three days, you really should eat." She looks back at me.

"I'm not hungry mom!" This is the first time I am talking. I don't mean to raise my voice but I just want her to leave and I want to try to deal with this myself. She doesn't seem hurt she probably suspected I would react this way. She just nods her head.

"You should take a shower. Your father and I will come back later." She walks out of the room and just as I wished I am by myself, and it feels terrible.

I decide to take a shower like mom said because it feels like my hair hasn't been washed in forever. I make the water really hot in the shower and for a long time I just sit at the bottom of the shower letting the burning water touch my face. I feel like it wakes me up a bit, but I feel like I am still asleep.

When I get out of the shower I put on the same clothes mainly because I don't think there are anymore. I sit on the floor in front of the mirror crossed legged, braiding my hair. It's easy to braid when it's wet like this so I have an easy time making a slick braid.

When I am finished doing that I realize that I have nothing to do. I try to sleep but every time I close my eyes I see someone. Nick of course, but even Jace, Keanan, Kyler find their way into my head. A few times I even see the boy from District 5 and the girl from District 1, the two people I killed. Since sleeping doesn't go well I stand up again. I have no clue what to do.

I look up to the door, maybe if I went for a walk I would be tired enough to not dream. It was a stupid theory, but since I was desperate I got up and walked to the door turning the knob slowly. I walk out of the door looking around to make sure no one can see me sneaking out. When I look around, it looks like some sort of hospital. Everything is gray and shiny. I start walking to my right and pass more doors and windows, and I don't know why I keep walking. The hard tiled floor is cold on my bare feet.

When I come to the end of the hallway there is a door. I don't know what makes me reach my hand and open it. I guess I am just seeking trouble. Through the door is a long narrow hallway that leads down to a clear door. Again not thinking I open the glass door filled with curiosity. When I get through there is a big window that shows a room that looks a lot like a hospital setting, more than the hallway outside of my room. I get closer to the window.

I press my head on to the window to see two people standing up. One is very tall and when I get a look of his scary face I know who it is. _President Crowe. _The sight of him makes me cringe, so I look at the other woman that is there. She is standing over the hospital looking bed next to a big machine. They don't notice me so I keep looking. When I look down at the hospital bed the sight I see makes my heart race and sink at the same time.

In the bed sits a boy. His eyes are jerking around fast and he looks confused. In the bed is Nick. And he is alive.


	29. Chapter 29

I press my face against the clear window. Can this even be possible? My heart is beating unbelievably fast. Nick is sitting up the hospital bed and if I stand really still I can hear talking inside of the room. I am sitting on my knees on a chair that was under the window. I press my ears up and listen. It's Nick's voice I hear first.

"Where's Hailey?" His voice is groggily like he just woke up, which I think he did. I get shaky hearing him talk. I want to run into the room and go into his arms, but the thought of President Crowe in the room terrifies me.

"Close your mouth and relax Nick." I think the woman says that because I remember President Crowe's voice from the hovercraft three days ago. Nick doesn't listen and his eyes get so intense.

"NO. Where is Hailey!" I want to scream _I'm right here Nick! _ I want to make his confusion wash away from his mind.

"Nicholas, please, stop thinking about that girl for one second." That was the eerie voice of President Crowe. Nick looks up to him like he is ready to argue. President Crowe puts his hand up in front of Nick's face. "Yes I know it's impossible, don't worry we can fix that." The tone in his voice is so devious and frightening. As soon as his says this heart skips a beat for a second because I know the President's plan now. One word echo's through my mind. _Hijacked._

President Crowe glances at the woman and she nods her head and turns towards the big machine. I can't let them do that to Nick, to take his memories. It would be so painful to see him looking at me with confusion, not knowing who I was and our history, I rather have him be dead.

Without thinking, and acting on impulse I throw the chair that I was sitting on into the big glass window. The glass shatters over me and I duck down immediately. _What was I thinking? I'm so stupid!_ I hear President Crowe yell and I hear their footsteps run out of the door of the room. So again acting without thinking I stand up and hop over the open window. I'm pretty sure I cut my bare feet with the glass I landed on.

When I look up I crouch down and look at Nick, he is looking at me with widened eyes. It's so nice to see his gray eyes again. I look back to see the woman and President Crowe walking down the narrow hallway away from this room.

"Nick." I run up to him putting my hand on his arm.

"Hailey." Hearing him say my name fills me with so much joy that I feel like all the past day of pain and misery has been erased. All my thoughts and worries have dissolved away.

"What's going on? I thought you were dead!" I say fighting the tears back.

"Oh he was." I hear behind me making me jump. I turn my head quick to the door way, how did he get back so quick. President Crowe stands tall in the door frame staring into my eyes. "What's with you people, I swear I honestly don't know how my grandfather dealt with your parents." He looks angry and is staring only at me.

"What did you do to Nick." I say trying to keep my voice straight and solid so he doesn't know I am intimidated by him.

"I brought him back to life." He answers like this was totally normal and he brought people back from the dead daily.

"And you were going to hijack him?" I say.

"You could say that, yes." I stand up from crouching on the floor over Nick and get closer to President Crowe. I look into his eyes.

"Why! What did he do to you!" I feel the anger forming through my body. I probably sound like a little kid arguing with an elder man but I didn't know how else to word the point I wanted to bring up with him.

"Relax Ms. Mellark, you bring up a good point, yes" he steps out the door, "Come, follow me." He motions to me, I turn looking back at Nick who looks so confused. He stands up quickly and steps besides me grabbing my hand. We walk side by side behind the president; my legs feel weak because I'm not sure what I just got myself into. What problems will occur from following him down this hallway?

We get to a door that is right next to the room Nick was in. He opens the door slowly to show stairs. Nick lets go of my hand and lets me walk first down the stairs, I let President Crowe get in front of me a little bit because I get antsy being that close to him. When we get to the bottom of the stairs is another door, whatever was down here was to never be found. The door had a lock on it half the size of the door itself. President Crowe turns and looks at us.

"What's in this room, is my attempt to be prepared, unlike my grandfather." I never knew President Snow, but I'm pretty sure he was prepared at all times during the rebellion. The way we learned about him in school, he was described as a frightful brilliant leader. He unlocks the door and we walk in.

There is small glass cubicles all lined up against the wall. I'm scared to look at first, but I have to look, forced by temptation. When I turn my head I see a boy in the glass, the boy looks familiar. When I realize who this boy is I can't stop myself from gasping. It's the District 1 tribute.

"Why would you do this." I say as I walk a little further to see Andric, the District 2 tribute. They are just staring at me with blank expressions, of course they are, they don't know who I am. There memories have been erased, they don't know what they are doing locked up by President Crowe. I stop walking when I see the District 3 tributes because soon after that would be District 4, and I couldn't bear to see Jace and Keanan with no memories of me or each other.

"Like I said, so I could be prepared." President Crowe swallows and I glance at Nick who has the same look of horror on his face. "If there was going to be a rebellion, I wanted to be ready, so the Capitol would stay strong, unlike when Snow ruled." I'm looking at President Crowe without anything coming out of my mouth; I have no idea how to put what I am thinking in to words.

"That is completely sick! These people have families!" Nick says what I couldn't work out to say. President face transforms into a smile that chills my spine. He doesn't say anything else and we don't move forward anymore, even if we did I wouldn't. I can't stand to see the tributes that were supposed to be dead, alive and staring at me.

President Crowe leads us back up the stairs and through the door I entered before I found the room with Nick. We walk the opposite way of my room and I suddenly am thinking of my mother who said she would be back to my room later. I don't run away from President Crowe because I'm so scared if I do one thing wrong he will take Nick from me. He takes us to a big room that has a desk, it must be his office. He takes a seat behind his desk.

"What are you going to do with all of them?" Nick asks calmly, president looks at the both of us and sighs.

"Well thanks to your girlfriend, I will have to destroy them." I look at Nick from the corner of my eye. His mouth is open is shock like he doesn't know what to say.

"You're just going to kill them!" I say looking back at President Crowe's face, he shakes his head

"Well I can't risk you going around telling everybody my plans now can I?" President Crowe is right. Besides the fact that his plan could be ruined by Nick and I, if Crowe was going keep them alive without their memories, I rather them be dead. But then there was the topic of Nick and what President Crowe's plan was for his future.

When I look at Crowe's face part of him looks troubled but another part shows the confident part of him that intimidated me so much.

"Ms. Mellark, Mr. Hawthorne, let's say we make a deal." When he says deal it makes my heart leap. I should never make a deal with him; just the idea of being banded with Crowe frightens me. But I don't say anything I keep my head forward and my expression blank.

"Hailey, I'll let you keep Nick and his memories if the two of you keep your mouth shut about my plan. You tell no one." I can feel the intensity of Nick's eyes on me. I was prepared to shoot down any offer Crowe made but I can't even think about shooting it down now. If I say no, Nick will be a mindless body, with no memories. I feel Nick's hand graze over mine but I keep my eyes on Crowe's face.

"Deal." I say more confident that I feel. My legs feel feeble and I feel like I am about to faint. I don't think about the consequences that will come along with this deal. But I do think about my parents, what would mom and dad do if I came back with Nick alive by my side? "What about my parents?" President Crowe rolls his eyes and sighs like he knew I would ask this.

After negotiating with him, he told us that I could tell my parents, but not Nick's. Nick seems upset but I think he was just excited he got to keep his memories and be with me. I know that's what I was mostly thinking of.

"What about the audience, the victor interviews…" Nick says looking at Crowe with caution on his face.

"Well, Hailey, that is where you need to put your acting skill to work." Everything President Crowe says is in code and I have to wait until he explains what he means by acting. He tells us that he has a plan, of course he does. I will have to act like I never found Nick alive, like I would never imagine Nick would come back into my life.

When we are done talking with the President it feels like I made a deal with the devil, I'm not sure how Nick feels because we are too busy embracing each other. We leave the office, Nick holding me in his arm and I can't help but wonder what trouble I have started for myself in the future.

**Hello! I'm sorry I left you guys with a terrible cliffhanger for so long, but I was having writers block and more terrible stuff like that! Anyway the story is almost over and I wanted to say now that I appreciate every single review I've gotten, especially the few of you that review every chapter of mine. It means so much, and you can ask anyone of my friends in real life and they will tell you, all I do is type and write this story. I literary check my phone every second during school to see if I get a new review, and I know I might not have the best grammar, but it means so much that I got as much readers as I did, so thank you so much. Alright sappiness over (: **


	30. Chapter 30

I told Nick to wait somewhere outside my room so I could tell my parents about the mess we got ourselves into in private. I can't guarantee mom will be happy about the deal we made with President Crowe. In fact I am almost sure she will be disappointed in me for doing this. I'm not sure what Dad will think of this but I don't have much time to wonder because I hear the door open slowly. I see dad first him looking at me with sad eyes.

Dad comes in slowly looking at me, he comes up to me in the bed wrapping his arms around me, I'm not sure if it is a _I'm glad you're alive Hailey_, orif it is_ I'm sorry for your loss_ hug. Mom is looking at my eyes; she must notice they are not as dark and distance as they were earlier today. Dad pulls away and sits next to me on my bed, mom must have told him how quiet I have been and how it was likely I wouldn't talk because he begins talking right away.

"Hey Hail, how are you feeling?" He looks at me with pain in my eyes.

"I'm fine." I say that because it's true. In all this mess and pain I have been suffering through the past days, I am fine, just because I get to keep Nick alive. Dad looks surprised to hear me talk and even more surprised to hear me say I am fine. Both of them stare at me with such caution like I could start yelling and screaming at any moment. It kind of annoys me but it clears from my mind when I realize that they are under the impression that Nick is still dead.

"That's great Hailey, we're just about to have dinner, are you feeling up to joining us?" Mom says this as I am sorting out the information I have to share with them.

"Um, yes, but first there's something I have to say." They look at me with questions in their eyes. "It might shock and confuse you…" I warn them because I know how it feels to be caught off guard by such a surprise.

So I tell them, I don't leave out a detail, I tell them about the surroundings and how scary President Crowe was. I can see the horror rising in mom's expression as her and dad listens so carefully to my story. When I finish telling them about the deal and what President Crowe said I must do at the interviews, they don't say anything for a while. Then dad puts his hand on my shoulder.

"Hailey…maybe you need some rest." The thought that they might think I am lying to them makes me angry.

"Dad, I'm serious, if you don't believe me I'll get Nick!" I stand up from the bed without waiting for an answer from them. I fling the door open in frustration and turn my head around looking for Nick and sure enough lingering around the room he is there. I walk over to him and pull his arm towards my room. When I come back into my room the expression of doubt washes away off of dad's face. We take turns explaining what happened and what we know.

"You made a deal with President Crowe?" Mom looks worried and is switching her eyes back and forth from me and Nick. I look up at Nick who is looking down at me and we catch each other's glances for a second. We both turn our heads to my mom and nod them.

After mom lectures us on how it was a terrible idea to make a deal with the President, and how much trouble it could get us in for later, she sighs and looks at the two of us hanging out heads low.

"Since no one can know about Nick, he will stay here while we go eat, we will bring you food." She looks at Nick. "Is that ok Nick?" Nick nods his head and thanks mom. Dad has yet to say a word about this whole thing but he just looks at Nick with wonder in his eyes.

I glance back at Nick before my mom, dad, and I walk out of the room.

/

After we got back from eating Nick is shown into a room that is secluded from everyone. When it is time to go to sleep I feel afraid being so far from Nick, I rather have him holding me with his big warm arms surrounding me. I lay in my bed staring at the wall thinking of every aspect of Nick that I love so much until I fall asleep.

I wake up to banging on my door and I hear the familiar voice coming into my room slowly. "Hailey! Oh how nice it is to see you! Get up now, get up, it's going to be a big big big day! We're going back to the training center to your prep team!" The voice belongs to Effie. When I stick my head out from the covers I see her smiling face back at me. She helps me out and she gives me clothes.

We ride over the training center in a car separate from Effie so Nick can ride with us, though it isn't that enjoyable because he has duck down so no one on the streets can see him. No one says much on the way there except when we get out and we have to find out a way to get Nick inside without being seen, especially with me, because right now according to President Crowe, I think Nick was dead.

Nick ends up going the opposite way with my parents while I meet up with Effie who takes me up to my old room in the training center. The room reminds me of the night that I spent in there after Nick kissed me. The bed is made and I look down at the dark blankets that once surrounded my frightened body the days leading up to the games.

When I get into the bathroom sitting on the chair that sits next to the shower is Everett. When he sees me he smiles. I wonder if he knows President's Crowe's plan, Caesar Flickerman definitely knows, but maybe someone told Everett so he could match us. He comes up to me putting his arms around me. He whispers in my ear,

"You're a good fighter." I pull away from him and give him a smile; probably the first one since the arena. Once again he knew what I was thinking, how through all this mess everyone was worried how my emotions were, and not complementing me on my skill for getting it that far in the games.

Soon after we hug I hear the door and hear a bunch of people taking, when I come out of the bathroom I see my over excited prep team. When they see me there faces light up and they drop all the stuff they were holding. They come towards me wrapping their arms around me, congratulating me on wining. Everett comes out with a smile on his face but he is yelling at the prep team for dropping my dress. He runs over to the messy pile and pulls up a hanger with black cloth over it, which must be hold my dress underneath it.

The prep team gets right to work on me, washing my hair in the bathroom sink. When they are done drying my hair Everett comes in with the bags and bags of makeup for the prep team to put on my face.

After that is my hair, I think they did the same thing that I had on the chariot rides, it was wavy and to the side. When they were finished with that, the dress was next. I was actually excited to see my dress, but of course Everett made me close my eyes and turn away while he got the dress out.

I feel the soft fabric brushing my skin as he puts the strapless dress over my body. When he is done fixing the position of the dress he steps away and says to look.

The dress I am wearing is a medium length dark purple dress. It's tight at the top, there are no straps, but below the waist the dress starts coming out more loosely. I notice I was right with the prediction of my hair; it is waved and brought to the side by a purple flower clip that matches my dress. The sides of my mouth creeps into a grin. Once again Everett has made me look great. I thank them for the work they did and the prep team and him leave the room to let me evaluate myself.

I look in the mirror just at my face. The makeup covers up any flaws I had on my face. When I stare back at this girl in the mirror I am wondering how I can pull off a miserable girl. I have never acted like President Crowe wanted me to. It couldn't be that hard, I will just have to make myself believe that I will never see Nick again. To make my eyes seem less bright I think of when Nick plunged the knife into his torso. Immediately the light leaves my eyes, I know what to do now.

Everett comes back to take me to the elevator. We go down to the ground floor that will take us to the city circle, it reminds me of the chariot rides, it feels like forever since then. When we got to the last floor Everett leads me to the place we went before our interviews so long ago.

I'm standing looking down at the floor, my mind racing through what President Crowe instructed me to do. I fill my head with the saddest thoughts I could ever think of. Things that have happened and things that I am afraid that will happen. I think it works because when Everett comes back he looks at me and asks me, "Are you alright?" I answer back "Yes." In the best voice I could think of that sounded depressed. Everett tells me that I am to go on the stage when I hear my name, which should be really soon.

And it was soon, like ten seconds soon. It takes a moment to realize that I must go to the stage. I hear the crowd roaring and it makes me smile a bit, but before I am visible to the crowd I snatch my smile away and swap it for a slight frown. When I look out to the crowd there must be millions of people. There screaming my name and Caesar is looking at me a huge smile.

Caesar gives me a hug and I give him a weak smile. When the crowd settles down Caesar and I begin to talk.

"Hailey! What it is a pleasure it is to see you! I see you are following in the footsteps of your mother and father." Caesar is still keeping the big smile on his face and I am still keeping my miserable face on.

"Yeah, uh…I guess so." I don't add much personality to any of my words so everyone can notice how broken I am. Caesar asks me more meaningless questions about the tributes, very clearly avoiding everything on Nick. I answer back in the same melancholy tone. I keep glancing back stage to see when Nick would be introduced, because right now I want him next to me.

"So Hailey, in the arena, there was no doubt a relationship with you and your District partner, Nick." The sound of his name makes me perk up my head. "We all saw your terrible reaction when he heroically stabbed himself so you can live, how are you feeling?" When he is finished I know this is my real time to shine, to show President Crowe I can act and I will do everything to keep my side of our deal.

"I…I am just…I feel terrible." I say slowly, sniffling my nose. The crowd awe's and Caesar's eyes look apologetic. "I just wish I was dead instead of him, he deserved to win, not me." Caesar puts his arm on my forearm and looks me in the eye.

"Well Hailey, we have a surprise for you and hopefully it will make you feel better." I try not to show my giddiness because I am supposed to be depressed and not waiting for my not anymore dead boyfriend to come onto the stage. I lift my eyes up to Caesar and say,

"I doubt it Caesar." I say back dragging my words. I can see Caesar mouth rising in such a smile I find myself fighting to stay in my glum expression.

"Well Hailey, just you wait. It appears that when the hovercrafts picked up Nicholas Hawthorne's body, it appears he wasn't completely dead, and they were able to revive him." I lift my eyes up and widen them.

"What?" I say fast and loud, I try to capture the emotions I felt when I saw Nick's alive body lying on the bed in President Crowe's building. Caesar is standing up now and holds up his hand.

"Let's bring out our second victor of the 76th Hunger Games! NICHOLAS HAWTHORNE!" Besides being extremely happy to see him again I remember I need to act like I just found out he was alive. I stand up and turn to the edge of the stage that we are on. Nick looks ten times better than he did the last time I saw him, which is extremely hard to do considering how great he looked before. His eyes sparkled in the spotlight. He was wearing a stunning black suit that made him look 5 years older. It was not just acting what I decided to do next.

I run to Nick and throw my arms around him. He lifts me up as soon as my hand touches the back of his neck. I look into his eyes and he looks into mine. Then for the first time since the arena, I kiss him. We stay there for a while, kissing each other. The kiss is so passionate that the whole crowd is howling and Caesar has to tap Nick's back to remind us that there are still interviews to do. We laugh as I peel myself off of Nick and take a seat next to him on the couch next to Caesar.

After that the interviews are very easy because I can feel the warmness from Nick's body next to me and it feels great, like nothing bad could ever happen. We go into questions quick and I am actually enjoying myself.

"Hailey, since it is incredibly clear that you and Nick are not 'Just Friends' in our first interview together, where you lying to me? Or did you not know you loved Nick." I laugh at Caesar and so does the whole crowd.

"I just think I didn't want to let myself love him, but it was incredibly hard." I say with a smile and at the end of my sentence I raise up my head to Nick and he smiles at me giving me a peck on the lips. The crowd awe's again and claps at our cuteness.

"What do you think your guy's parents think of this?" I laugh a little because despite me and Nick kissing passionately on TV I haven't though once about what my dad thought about my little romance with Nick.

"I think my parents are fine with it. I mean who would mind having Hailey around." The crowd laughs and I give Nick a goofy smile.

"Well my parents on the other hand, I'm not too sure!" the crowd laughs as Nick and I banter back and forth about my dad's opinion of Nick.

"Well regardless of the past, I'm sure my dad will learn to love Nick, because he is a really good guy." The crowd is overwhelmed with our cuteness and is making all different kinds of noises.

"What are you guys looking forward too, going back home?" I look to Caesar and tell him how excited I am to see my brother who I miss terribly. I give a wave to the camera to Will and I look up to Nick to hear his answer.

"To spend time with Hailey." He says quickly without thinking. He looks back down at me and is giving me the same smile with the same dimple I've seen so many times. Except this time I am not scared that this could be the last time that I see his face of perfection. This time I am certain I love Nick and that I want to spend the rest of my life with him

** One more chapter to go! Ahh! It's almost finished, one again I want to thank everyone for reading and reviewing! It means so much. But other than thanking you, I wanted to let you know that I want to write a sequel to this! and I already have some ideas but I don't want to write it unless you guys want it, so let me know if you want a sequel in the reviews, because if you don't I'll just think you don't, so please let me know if you want a sequel! Thank you so much. I love all of you!:)**


	31. Chapter 31

I am back in my room in the training center. Nick is only across the hall from me but I still feel like he is too far away from me. My mind is running through the conversation between Caesar, Nick, and I. I am thinking about how great it felt being in Nick's arms in front of everyone in Panem. I remember the way Nick looked into my eyes. I don't remember ever seeing him that happy. The gray color in his eyes shining not only from the lights on us, but from the happiness.

I smile thinking about how the audience reacted to our relationship. The way even if we just looked at each other the crowd screamed and howled. Then I think of our kiss, this was way better than any other kisses we have shared. The way he just held me in his arms was perfect.

I'm sitting on my bed crossed leg, not even a little bit tired. The thought of Nick just gives me enough energy to live off of. I am twirling my hair around my finger as I think how soon we will be back in District 12 and I can be with my brother, and Nick and I can hunt together.

Then I hear a soft knocking on my door, it's very light, if I was asleep I probably wouldn't have heard it. I got off the bed stepping on my bare feet lightly. I walk over to the door and open it slowly. When I open it I see Nick standing looking back at me. He looks at me with a slight grin on his face.

"I figured you couldn't sleep either."

"I couldn't" I smile at him, I tell him to come in and he does. We sit on the bed both sitting crossed leg facing each other. We talk in small whispers so we don't wake up anyone sleeping in rooms anywhere near us.

We talk about ourselves so we can learn more things about each other. I learned that his favorite color is dark blue and his favorite food is rabbit stew. I learned other little things too that made me feel even closer to him.

We joke around because we finally have time to, there is no deadline to our lives. We can spend as long as we want focusing on each other. I don't know about Nick but I could spend this whole night talking about his hobbies. We almost do spend the whole night talking about things. We tell each other stories of our memories.

Nick tells me a story that makes me laugh so hard I am afraid that I might wake up everyone. The story was about how his father, Gale, taught him to hunt. Gale left in the woods alone one day with just a knife, Nick was so lost and de didn't know how to do anything, the way he described his reactions to everything in the woods were just so funny.

I tell Nick about the time Will fell from a tree one time when I took him hunting, how Will lost his memory for the rest of the day, he of course got it back but I tell him how he was confused and the random funny things he said. Nick laughs, the sound of his laugh is so sweet it fills me with joy

After a few more heart warming stories I find my self yawning and my eyes are getting heavy. I find Nick looking at me when I finish a long yawn. He stands and kissing my cheek.

"Goodnight." he smiles and he heads towards the door. Seeing him walking away discomforts me.

"No, stay, I won't be able to sleep." He turns back to me, and he looks like he hesitates for a second, but he doesn't protest.

We get under the covers and Nick slides is hand over me. Immediately I feel better and I just want to put my head on his shoulder and melt into his chest and go into a nice sleep. I turn my head towards his chest and place it softly on it. He kisses my forehead and then I close my eyes.

"Goodnight Nick." I say softly

Nick makes me feel alive but like I'm dreaming at the same time, he makes me skip a heart beat when he smiles, but he also keeps my heart beating. I think I love him.

This is where I feel like I belong, I may not be in District 12 and maybe I'm in a bed with The son of the man that my dad dislikes, but I love it here. Maybe President Crowe will start some trouble in the future and with the history of my family that could just happen. But I guess it's just one fire that can endlessly burn.

**Wow! I didn't expect to get the last chapter up tonight, but I had some extra time, so here you go the last chapter of Endless Fire. I hope you liked it and the rest of the story, the countless hours I worked on this story is unbelievable. Most of the reviews say they want a sequel and I am happy to say..(drum roll) THERE WILL BE ONE! Hahaha! Well I am going to write one but I am going to take a break. (I know, I'm sorry) but I think my social life agrees with me on this one. I need time to let my creative juices flow, and I need to spend time being social, and working on schoolwork. But if you want to keep in touch with me until then and ask me questions follow me on my twitter, ****/#!/LanieBoBaniee**** once again thank you so so so so so much for all the reviews. 3 I love all of you! **


	32. Note for everyone

Hey everyone!

So I'm going to get started on the sequel soon, I'm not sure when it will be up, maybe in a week or so.

I am starting to brainstorm ideas in my head and I have a pretty good idea of what I want to put into this book, but for times when I am having writers block I am going to need help. So leave in the reviews or you can tweet me (.com/laniebobaniee) anything you want to see in the sequel

I might not use all of your guy's ideas, but I will definitely put some thought into them!

I'm not quite sure of a name yet, so sorry I couldn't give you guys that information. But I will give you guys this: you will be seeing the victory tour. :p

Thank you all again for reading and reviewing

-Laniebobaniee


	33. SMOLDERING EMBERS

**Hello everyone! I am just making a chapter on here to let you all know incase you don't have an author alert for me **

**my sequel is up! **

**It is called Smoldering Embers, **

**Hope you like it!**

**-Laniebobanie**


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